Galactic Treasure Hunt
by keiman and kei
Summary: With the very last of the Templars aboard the gang from Xmas w/ the Dirty Pair/Angel Wings takes off after the mysteriously elusive fabulous lost treasure trove of the Knights Templar- in deep space! A long awaited treat for my readers.Never dull I swear!
1. Chapter 1

GALACTIC TREASURE HUNT

DISCLAIMER: OK Servie, it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruka Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell. Likewise a big domo arigatour (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future. As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due. Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the very first chapter for your perusal.

CHAPTER 1 'Attics Have the Darnedest Things' or 'Servie's Picnic'

Angie looked at the object again and frowned. Nevertheless, it was definitely a vidstar chart even though it was several millenia older than the very earliest vidstar charts known to civilization!

Angela de Roncesvalles was staring down at the treasure map of the cosmos that men had been seeking ever since the Terran 14th Century!

The last surviving descendant of the mysterious and mystical Terran True Knights- the 'Knights Templar', Angela was standing in her late Uncle Giles's cluttered attic nowhere remotely near Terra. Angela was quite tall for her tender age of 19. Her fiery red mane, however, caused her to resemble the Terran Angelic Gaelic martyr- St Bridget 'Our Lady of Knock'.

Instead of the dark habit of a pious nun, Angie wore the dark magenta jumpsuit uniform of the 'Galactic Star Command' forces. A single gold band on either shoulder epaulet proclaimed her rank. She was a newly commissioned second class sub-ensign (jg) and damned proud of it too.

Around her slender shoulders a shining silver cloak was swirled. A matching helmet with lowered blast shield lay on the floor beside her.

Sure Uncle Giles had said that she and he had been the final surviving descendants of Francois Ponce de Leon de Roncesvalles, the ninth and the very last of the original Terran 'Knight of the Holy Temple' better known as the 'Knights Templar' but that holy Order had been hundreds of thousands of lightyears away on Terra-

Not a dusty old garret in the Zandar Zan sector of old Kara Kura City on 'Shimougou' whose closest neighbour (Mars) was still several hundred lightyears distant!

Angela was snapped out of her reverie by a very impatient voice coming from below.

"Yo! Subby! You about done rootin' around up there? I do wanna reach 'Minerva' sometime this millenium, ya know! C'mon now, Duchess and shake a leg, girl! I'll be in the kitchen. By the way, Uncle Giles is out of beer!" shouted Fleet Admiral Zachary Taylor Zero.

Even if at 5'11" Angela was quite tall for a female, she was dwarfed by her commander's 6'6" height.

"Sorry Cap but looky oro (what) I found up in the attic, sir!" she squealed excitedly. He looked up lazily from his wrist vidchromo and stared in fascination at Angie's find.

"Gott im Himmel (God in Heaven)! Ist das vas I tink it ist, Fraulein Subby?" asked an incredulous Captain Fritz von Dekker, the infamous 'Green Baron' on loan to the 'GSC' from the 'Emerald Queen' starship.

"Oro the Sam Hell! Just what is that thing, Fritzie?" demanded Zero.

"It ist der missing link from der Terrans' ancient history, mein Herr! It ist der lost map to der 'Knights Templar's missing treasure trove of vealth!" cried the direct descendant of the Terran's WWI flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, the 'Red Baron' of Germany.

Zach frowned and then shook his head.

"Nai (No), it can't be! If this vidchart's right their damned loot's beyond Corellian Space (A wasteland taboo that is off limits to all 'United Galactica' forces of which the 'GSC' was one of the largest) by some 8 million lightyears! Only there's nothing out there but unexplored space dammit!" replied Zach Zero.

Angie coughed and indicated a strange symbol on the side of the chart with a gloved forefinger.

"Uncle Giles told me this is a secret symbol of the Templars- a dot within a circle atop a pyramid surmounted by an all-seeing aizu (eye) so this IS the missing map to fabulous untold riches and knowledge, Cap!" she crowed.

Like Angela, Zach had only recently been promoted- from Captain to Fleet Admiral.

"I vill summon der 'Andrea Dorian' (a shuttlecraft) so ve can return to der 'Liberator' und change course at once, Herr Zero!" cried an eagerly excited von Dekker.

"Belay that, Fritzie. We already got a mission, remember? Returning Lady Servalan to her Federation. We can't very well stop and go off treasure hunting now, can we?" growled Zero.

"And just why the Hell not, Admiral? I 'love' treasure hunts! Let's go guys!" trilled a very hyper Servalan through his comlink.

"Madame President, my orders are quite clear-" he began.

"And I am changing them, my dear Zachary. You will immediately return here to the 'Liberator' and change course at once. I'll send the 'Andy' for you right now. I 'am' still in charge, Admiral, am I not?" demanded Servie icily.

Zach sighed.

"Of course you are, Servie. Send the 'Andy' for us, love. Let's go, Angie! Don't forget your plasma rifle." ordered Zero.

Zach hated being upstaged by any woman, however, Servalan Striker-Smythe was the president of the 'Inter Space Federation' and he had been ordered to obey her every whim no matter what.

He sighed again as he gave the liftoff command some fifteen minutes later aboard his 'Liberator' patrol starship. He consoled himself with the fact that at least 'She Who WILL Be Obeyed' was back at the Academy arigatou te Kami (thank God)!

Despite the firebrand Hellcat Amazon's objections she was back on 'Shimougou' wet nursing the new 3WA cadets along with the violet-maned vixen. He referred of course to Grand Marshall Keirran O'Halloran and Lieutenant Commandant Yuri Donovan- the 'Demon of Dublin' and the 'Rose of Tralee', the tro-con 'Lovely Angels' of the 'World Welfare Works Association' (3WA), the peace-keeping arm of the 'United Galactica Federation of Galaxies'- the infamous 'Dirty Pair' themselves!

"When do we get there, Zackie?" demanded an impatient Servie.

"We reach Corellian Space in three solar days. As far as this ancient puzzle (he pointed to the old vidstar chart map on the console in front of them) goes, Kami alone knows, Blondie. Your guess is as good as mine." he answered referring to the cryptic message at the bottom of the Templar vidchart.

"And I sure as Hell hope that we don't run into any Corellian pirate freighters either." he added to himself worriedly.

"Bison Fields dead ahead, sir. Orders?" announced Lieutenant Commander Molly Callahan, his navvie or navigator.

'Bison Fields' was a deadly asteroid belt which was damned hard to maneuver through. However, if they wanted to reach Corellian Space, the lawles corridor of brigands and pirates that marked the end of the known Universe, 'Bison' had to be traversed. Ahead lay very hostile territory and unexplored space.

Zach wished he had Gene Starwind aboard. That grizzled old space dog who commanded the 'Outlaw Star' space cruiser knew 'Bison' better than Zach knew his own 'Liberator'.

Zero prayed they'd meet up with no pirates, smugglers or-

ZANG! An ion bomb burst exploded in front of them!

END OF CHAPTER ONE.

There! I promised. I swore. I delivered. Now how about a review eh? Take care and sayonara- K&K and Suzie Q ? the GE babe.

PS- I really wanted to wait until Angel Wings was completed but with only a handful of chapters left to go I have succumbed to the pleadings and cajolings of my readers and you have just read the result. Worth the long wait? You guys decide that, not yours truly. Happy St Patrick's Day to all- keimanzero Scion of Anime in (Lebanon County) PA & Suzie Q the Galactic Enforcer babe.


	2. Chapter 2 'Fllay's Find' or 'Follow the

Galactic Treasure Hunt

DISCLAIMER: OK Angie, it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruka Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell. Likewise a big domo arigatour (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future. As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due. Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the second chapter for your perusal.

CHAPTER 2 'Fllay's Find' or 'Follow the River'

A refresher for readers of Chapter 1 who have forgotten it or for newbies who missed it, this is how the first chapter concluded.

"We reach Corellian Space in three solar days. As far as this ancient puzzle (he pointed to the old vidstar chart map on the console in front of them) goes, Kami alone knows, Blondie. Your guess is as good as mine." he answered referring to the cryptic message at the bottom of the Templar vidchart.

"And I sure as Hell hope that we don't run into any Corellian pirate freighters either." he added to himself worriedly.

"Bison Fields dead ahead, sir. Orders?" announced Lieutenant Commander Molly Callahan, his navvie or navigator.

'Bison Fields' was a deadly asteroid belt which was damned hard to maneuver through. However, if they wanted to reach Corellian Space, the lawles corridor of brigands and pirates that marked the end of the known Universe, 'Bison' had to be traversed. Ahead lay very hostile territory and unexplored space.

Zach wished he had Gene Starwind aboard. That grizzled old space dog who commanded the 'Outlaw Star' space cruiser knew 'Bison' better than Zach knew his own 'Liberator'.

Zero prayed they'd meet up with no pirates, smugglers or-

ZANG! An ion bomb burst exploded in front of them!

"Shields up dammit!" yelled Suba (Subaltern) Alison Kurtz. She was Zero's new weapons officer.

"Anything out there, Ensigns?" she added.

"Nai (No) mum. He must be 'cloaked'." replied Fllay Allster.

"Got him! He's on our scans now, Suba. A Corellian star cruiser. (Probably a pirate vessel. This is lawless frontier space, remember?) Want I should return fire, mum?" shouted an eager Cagalli Yula Athna.

"Belay that, Ensign. Hail him, Integra. Tell him we're just passin' through." commanded Zach Zero.

"Ooh, he just said some nasty words taht even I have never heard before, Zach. The gist of it is that we're baka (crazy, nuts) but if we really want to commit sepukuu (Ritual suicide of the Samurai warriors) he won't stand in our way, Cap." said Sir Integra Winifred van Helsing, grand-daughter of the famous vampire hunter whose name she bore.

"Thank him kindly and let's burn those hyperdrives. Engage." he ordered and the 'Liberator' accelerated.

Are you baka idiots trying to destroy my ship or are you just insane?" grumbled 'Dynamo', the 8 feet tall 'Triceratops'the chief engineer.

"Gimme 65 Warp, 'Dynamo' onegai (please). Just until we get a few lightyears between us and them." cajoled Zero.

"In yer dreams maybe! How about 50, Cap?" growled the gigantic dragon lizard.

"Fine but you gotta hold us to that speed for at least fifteen minutes." sighed Zach.

"You, er, you surely meant to say ten, not fifteen, did you not, sir?" asked the chief engineer.

"Whatever. Zero out." he finished and hung up the relay mike.

Eleven minutes and forty seconds later the 'Liberator's massive warp core went from a roar to a quiet hum as their warp speed dropped to a sensible 25 Warp.

"The system on your vidmap starchart, sir? Well, see for yourself, Zach. It just ain't here nowhere." reported Molly and she pointed out the star windows. Sure enough there was naught except unbroken unexplored cosmos outside of the ship- certainly no star system!

"That's 'cause they're cloaked, kids." drawled Grand Admiral Han Solo. Molly stared at him like he had just gone bonkers.

"A whole damned star solar system, Han?" she demanded.

"Why the Hell not?" he drawled back.

"Well there's one sure fire way to be sure." yelled Caggie.

"Ja, das ist richtig (Yes, that's right), Herr Zero. Launch a probe out there." suggested the 'Green Baron'.

"OK. Make it so, Number One. Energize." replied Zero.

"Detonate." ordered Allie when the probe was safely away from them.

"Roger that, Al." said Fllaysie. The projectile exploded and drenched the stars with magnesium light from one end of space to another.

"Well I'll be damned!" said Molly Callahan, her cheroot dropping from her mouth to the console.

There as far as the eye could see was a small but orderly star grouping hitherto hidden from sight!

"Are we there yet, guys?" cried an overzealous Servie.

"Is that where the goodies are?" yelped Fllaysie.

"No Servie, we ain't there yet and no Fllaysie, no goodies. This is where we find our first clue. Then that one leads us to another one, that clue sends us after another and so on and so forth, ad infinitum!" snapped Zero angrily.

"I told you it was a wild goose chase dammit!" he added.

"Seeketh me out where no light cometh for thou art surely pious and must goeth in the footsteps of God Almighty. Beware for ye must haveth great faith indeed to faceth perils untold." (Signed) Giles de Montmartre (The strange symbol of the all seeing aizu (eye) surmounting the enclosed circle, square and dot was skilfully drawn above the signature).

"Hey, that's easy, guys! A 'black hole' in space!" squealed Angie excitedly.

"Yeah? Then how about the rest of it, kiddo? And what 'perils untold' I wonder? Sounds like gibberish to me, folks." replied a skeptical Zach Zero.

"I know that the 'pious' man kneels, Zach. I heard that somewhere." suggested Han Solo.

"Kneels? Where in the Hell do ya 'kneel' in a quasar, Solo?" Servalan wanted to know.

"And just what are these 'footsteps of God Almighty'" demanded Molly.

"Wait a nano-sec and hold the comlinks everyone." said Angie.

"Ain't there a constellation called the 'Path of Kami (God)' Molly? (The navvie nodded dubiously) Can you point ti out to us on the vidstar charts? (Molly tapped a few keys and the 'Path' winked into life. Angie pointed a gloved forefinger at a star group immediately South of the 'Path') And doesn't this cluster here resemble someone kneeling?

"It must mean that if we take a sighting from that star cluster and then travel through the 'Path of Kami' we will reach a 'black hole' and find our second clue, Cap." she suggested. Zero nodded.

"Seems to make a bit of sense. What have we got to lose? Molly, lay in a course for that 'pious man kneeling' star cluster- 35 Warp." he commanded. The 'Liberator' accelerated and began its week long voyage to the faroff Phi Quadrant.

"Happy now, Madam Prez?" he grumbled and Servie scowled at him. Molly turned to her skipper.

"Sir? We are not really and truly going inside a quasar depression, are we?" she asked worriedly.

Zero was well known throughout the cosmos for his 'go for broke' attitude even when his orders told him not to do something so Molly's query was quite justified. Zach stared at her.

"Are you on 'dilythium dust', Navvie? Hell no, we ain't going inside a 'black hole', map or no map. Somehow I don't think that Angie's great-great-grand-whatever ancestour ever intended anyone to either. There must be some other answer, right Subby?" he demanded impatiently.

"I'm workin' on it right now, sir." replied the very last descendant of the Knights Templar.

"Take your time, Angie. It's gonna take us another whole solar week to get there." said a still deeply concerned Molly Callahan.

Angela Mary marie Magdalena Rosette Christopher de Roncesvalles racked her mind and brain and memory for an answer to that conundrum for most of that solar week. The afternoon of the day they finally reached the Phi Quad she had it (she hoped). Now all that remained was convincing the skipper that she was right.

"Oro (What) the jigoku (Hell) Subby! You on the same 'dust' trip as Callahan? I cannot send the 'Andrea Dorian' (one of the shuttles) into a 'black hole' just because you think it ain't one! I'd suffer the same fate that Giles de Montmartre did and then some!" howled her boss.

"Then at least send in a probe, sir. I know it's really a 'worm hole' that 'looks' like a quasar opening in the space/time continuum. Onegai (Please), Cap? Humour me?" pleaded Angie desperately.

"OK. Ashita (Tomorrow) we'll launch a probe and when we lose it, we are going back to our real mission. Is that clearly understood, Subby? (Angela nodded) Good. Now get back to your post, kid." replied her skipper.

The next morning a probe was launched from the 'Pious Man Kneeling' star cluster and through the 'Path of Kami' directly into the yawning maw of the dark spatial anomaly known as a 'black hole'. An hour and a half later Zach was about to abort the 'hunt' when Integra spoke.

"Quiet! Shut the Hell up you guys! I got something coming in over the vid relays. Sir, it's our damned probe! Its signal is quite distinct, Zach." she said, speaking around her ever present cigar.

"How far?" drawled Solo.

"Ten thousand lightyears." she replied.

"It can't have gone that far! Not even in a 'worm hole', Winnie!" cried Zach.

The comm relay officer indicated the console's vidscreens.

"See for yourself, Cap." she said.

"Remember what the map said? Something about having great faith? This must be exactly what Angie's Terran ancestour meant. We have got to go through there, Zachie." insisted Servalan.

"Well I won't do it!" replied a defiant Zachary Taylor Zero.

"I've forgotten, Admiral. Remind me again, please. Just who is in charge here?" she said sweetly.

"You heard the lady, Han. Take us inside that thing and Kami help us all." growled Zero.

"Hold onto yer shorts and strap in, folks. Here we go." drawled the ex-pirate.

The 'Liberator' crawled forward steadily into the anomaly and slowly edged inside the 'black hole' which indeed was a 'worm hole'. In another hour they exited the 'worm hole' and discovered that they were all the way across to the other side of the known Universes. The 'Liberator' was in orbit around a miniscule moon only half the size of Terra's Luna.

"Looky there guys!" cried Fllaysie who was pointing at the view screens. Below them a silvery river crossed the moon and seemed to be pointing like an arrow- due East!

END OF CHAPTER TWO.

There! I promised. I swore. I delivered. Now how about a review eh? Take care and sayonara- K&K and Suzie Q ? the GE babe.


	3. Chapter 3'Solo'sSolutions'IntotheVoid'

GALACTIC TREASURE HUNT

DISCLAIMER: OK Molly darlin', it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruka Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell. Likewise a big domo arigatou (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future. As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due. Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the third chapter for your perusal.

CHAPTER 3 'Solo's Solutions' or 'Into the Void'

A refresher for readers of Chapter 2 who have forgotten it or for newbies who missed it, this is how the second chapter concluded.

"OK. Ashita (Tomorrow) we'll launch a probe and when we lose it, we are going back to our real mission. Is that clearly understood, Subby? (Angela nodded) Good. Now get back to your post, kid." replied her skipper.

The next morning a probe was launched from the 'Pious Man Kneeling' star cluster and through the 'Path of Kami' directly into the yawning maw of the dark spatial anomaly known as a 'black hole'. An hour and a half later Zach was about to abort the 'hunt' when Integra spoke.

"Quiet! Shut the Hell up you guys! I got something coming in over the vid relays. Sir, it's our damned probe! Its signal is quite distinct, Zach." she said, speaking around her ever present cigar.

"How far?" drawled Solo.

"Ten thousand lightyears." she replied.

"It can't have gone that far! Not even in a 'worm hole', Winnie!" cried Zach.

The comm relay officer indicated the console's vidscreens.

"See for yourself, Cap." she said.

"Remember what the map said? Something about having great faith? This must be exactly what Angie's Terran ancestour meant. We have got to go through there, Zachie." insisted Servalan.

"Well I won't do it!" replied a defiant Zachary Taylor Zero.

"I've forgotten, Admiral. Remind me again, please. Just who is in charge here?" she said sweetly.

"You heard the lady, Han. Take us inside that thing and Kami help us all." growled Zero.

"Hold onto yer shorts and strap in, folks. Here we go." drawled the ex-pirate.

The 'Liberator' crawled forward steadily into the anomaly and slowly edged inside the 'black hole' which indeed was a 'worm hole'. In another hour they exited the 'worm hole' and discovered that they were all the way across to the other side of the known Universes. The 'Liberator' was in orbit around a miniscule moon only half the size of Terra's Luna.

"Looky there guys!" cried Fllaysie who was pointing at the view screens. Below them a silvery river crossed the moon and seemed to be pointing like an arrow- due East!

"Follow that arrow er I mean river, Han." commanded Zach. Obligingly Solo accelerated to 40 Warp and shot off into the void beyond known space. One solar hour and 15 thousand lightyears later-

Hey Zach! How far we gonna follow this shimatta arrow of Fllaysie's?" drawled Han.

"Ooh! Oro's that thingy, Caggie?" yelped Fllay Allster excitedly. She was pointing out the star window to a glittering array of planets, stars and asteroids dead ahead.

"How the Hell should I know, stupid? I- Kami shimatta ni jigoku (God damn it to Hell)! It looks just like a teeny tiny solar system!" replied Cagalli Yula Athna not too quietly.

"Huh? What did you two bozos just say? A system? It bloody well can't be a system, not this damned far out!" objected Molly Callahan incredulously.

"I'll be damned, Molly! The kid's right. That thing 'is' a solar system albeit a really small one!" exclaimed Jimbo Hawking who was hitching a ride back to Gene Starwind's 'Outlaw Star' in the 'Gamma Quad'.

"What next?" demanded a disgusted Zero. He wanted no part of this wild jacaronda hunt across the galaxies, that he did not but it was Servie's call, not his, not this time.

"Would ya believe a pyramid topped by an all-seeing aizu (eye), Cap?" replied Nami Richards indicating the forward vidscreens.

"A Templar symbol by Kami! Solo! Take us down there!" cried Angie eagerly.

"Hey! I am in command, Subby, not you! OK Han, make it so." ordered Zach resignedly and obediently Han touched down with the 'Liberator' almost beside a pyramid structure easily ten or even fifteen times larger than ancient Terran Egypt's 'Great Pyramid of Cheops' at Giza!

Within minutes Zach, Angela, Servalan, Molly and Solo had beamed down. Zach had left Jimbo in charge of a whining Fllaysie, an angry Cagalli and a very pissed off Nami.

"So far, so good. Jimbo, it looks safe enough so we're going inside this thing. Zero out." trilled Zach.

"Be careful, Cap. hawking out." trilled the interim commander.

"And just how in the Hell are we gonna get inside that thing, Zach?" drawled Han, drawing his Mark XIII ion cannon.

"Open sesame?" joked Servalan.

"Enter if thou art truly repentant and have faith in Our Lord." boomed out a stentorian voice of thunder. Suddenly the entire wall facing them glowed golden, shimmered and vanished!

"Once more into the breach dear friends, once more." chortled Zero, leading his away teeam inside the massive structure.

"Oh shut up, Zach." said a suddenly nervous Servalan.

"Oro a strange greeting." observed Molly and she stepped forward. At that instant Han recalled the ancient Terran film he'd seen a few months ago at the Shimougan Academy- 'Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade'! He shoved Molly to the ground- hard and dropped to his knees beside her.

"The penetent man kneels! Everybod down dammit if you value your lives!" he shouted touching his head to the floor a nano-second before an ancient scythe-like blade whistled past inches above their bent heads!

"Roll! Sideways and then forward! Stay low for Kami's sake!" he yelled, suiting his actions to his words and dragging Callahan with him. The others followed in his wake and entered the next chamber.

"Oro's the next surprise, pirate?" growled Molly, dusting herself off. She was covered in limestone dust and grit.

"Go ye in the footsteps of Almight Kami er I mean God but the Templar boys knew him as Jehovah." he replied and pointed towards a flagstoned passageway dead ahead of them. Each stone seemed to be marked with a letter from some strange and ancient alphabet.

Angela de Roncesvalles boldly stepped forward.

"OK. Jehovah so 'J'-" she intoned and stepped on the nearest 'J' stone. Servie grabbed her arm just as the stone crumbled to dust beneath her boot and the floor opened beneath it revealing a deep crevasse or cavern several hundred meters below them!

"In ancient Sumerian, Jehovah begins with an 'I', not a 'J', children. Please allow me to proceed and you step 'only' where I do unless you want to explore this dump's basements." drawled the ex-smuggler.

Carefully, his boots spelled out 'I-E-H-O-V-A-H' and then even more cautiously the rest of the team followed him across the passageway. Soon all of them had traversed the hall safely and now stood on the brink of a bottomless chasm atop a carved jacaronda beast's immense head.

"Only by a leap from the mighty beast's head shall ye prove thy worth.'quoted Han from the old star map Angie had found in Uncle Giles's attic.

"You are bloody nuts, pirate, if ya think we're gonna jump off a shimatta cliff, dammit!" howled Molly.

"Trust me and have faith, kiddies. Just you follow Uncle Han and don't you fret none." said Solo merrily. Inside he was quaking in his space boots.

Closing both aizu (eyes) tightly and breathing a silent prayer than harrison Ford had not been a lunatic in that old film, He placed a foot over the edge in mid-air and stepped forward, dropping a half meter down and onto- nothing!

Nai (No)! Not nothing- he was standing on a perfectly camouflaged pathway leading across the huge chasm. Again his compadres mimiced his moves, crossing the void quickly and safely. Han picked up a few handfuls of gravel and tossed them across the 'invisible' bridge so that they could find it on the way back.

"Wait. We may need this, sir." said Angie, hefting a strange star-shaped weapon.

"Christ, princess! That's the 'Glave o' Krull', ain't it? Where'd you get it?" cried Han.

"Last time I saw that damned thing was when Lord Ivy (Ivanhoe the dark Knight) had it a few years ago." assented Molly.

Han handed it back to Angie who attached it to her belt and followed Han into an inner chamber of this mammoth mausoleum. At its far end loomed a sealed portal. When words, curses and brute force failed to open it, Han and Zach emptied their plasma rifles into it. Then Molly blasted it a trio of Mark XXXIII shells. Servalan booted it and then hopped around on one foot howling in pain.

"Dumbass." giggled Angie.

"Shithead!" replied the Federation president.

"Shut the Hell up the pair of ya and that is a kami shimatta direct order!" yelled an angry and frustrated Zach Zero.

"Try the glave." suggested Callahan.

"Couldn't hurt, that it couldn't." agreed Solo.

"Use the force, princess." he added jokingly.

The glave slipped from Angela's nervous fingers but amazingly the thing remained suspended in mid-air! Moving her hand over it caused the glave to move and damned fast too! The weapon cut through the portal like a knife through hot butter! When the portal finally dissolved into the aether so did the glave!

Behind the portal was revealed to be a chamber that glowed like 'G'Targ'itself! ('G'Targ' was Corellian Heaven).

"Sir, I see no visible light source in there." breathed Angie in awe.

Does it need one, girl? Look." replied her skipper.

END of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 coming along soon.

There! I promised. I swore. I delivered. Now how about a review eh? Take care and sayonara- K&K and Suzie Q ? the GE babe.


	4. Chapter 4'Piracy in the Pyramid'The La

Galactic Treasure Hunt

DISCLAIMER: OK Zachary Tayor Zero, it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruka Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell. Likewise a big domo arigatou (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future. As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due. Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the fourth chapter for your perusal.

iframe width="420" height="315" src=".com/embed/ciiivY20XGs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe Courtesy YT and vincentyeo88 here's a short history of the Knights Templar who are a centrifical part of this fanfiction and the next to follow it- 'Angelic Pyramid'. Following this is a video about Foucault's Pendulum which includes some good accounts of the Knights' lost treasure trove. Somehow I seriously doubt if it will ever be found halfway across the universes but they were into so many mysterious things well who can tell? Who can honestly say that there is no eternal dragon of the cosmos like Porunga of Namek or Shenron of Terra?

iframe width="560" height="315" src=".com/embed/cl8K5o35sk4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe Courtesy YT and SilverBuddha comes the final chapter of Umberto Eco's epic tale of 'Foucault's Pendulum'

iframe width="420" height="315" src=".com/embed/1CvDKivmI5o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen/iframe Courtesy YT and plumstreetmusic here is the Templars' Treasure Map and here's the Yahoo for Knights Templar Treasure

.com/watch?v=1CvDKivmI5o Even the creators of Dirk Pitt and National Treasure toyed with this mysterious treasure hoard whose location is so enigmatic as to elude every searcher to date!

Last night we saw Sucker Punch .org/wiki/Sucker_Punch_%28film%29

a href=".com/photos/photo/974639-Sucker-Punch" img src="/images/members/2012/3/25/1/3/1380172331254779619_" title="Sucker Punch" /a It's a brilliantly made film about the recesses of the human mind. More importantly for anime freaks and gamers alike, it features several video games, war games mostly and also has a marvelous actor as the protagonist's ally- Scott Glenn who was superb as firefighter Ax in 'backdraft' and as the sub captain in 'Hunt For Red October' which starred Sean '007' Connery as a Russian sub commander.

One more entry before the chapter OK? I was appalled when I watched the preview trailer for the new theatre film 'Lockout'! Why? Because from start to finish it is a direct steal from Haruko Takachiho's 'Original DP's very first episode!

That was the one that had our DDD lovelies breaking up a prison riot on a penal colony in deep space. 'Lockout' is exactly that! Will they feature some idiot trying to blast down a two meter thick portal like Kei tried before Yuri used her 'laser light ring' blaster to knock it (and herself) down- who knows eh?

One thing I know that will be a dead giveaway that they stole this idea from Haruko-San will be if they enter via a storm drain riding surfboards down a slipstram gravity well and one of 'em sings out 'Cowabonga, Dude!'like Kei did making ODP not TMNT's Mikey the first one on TV to use that surfer term.

CHAPTER 4 'Piracy in the Pyramid' or 'The Last Templar'

A refresher for readers of Chapter 3 who have forgotten it or for newbies who missed it, this is how the third chapter concluded.

Closing both aizu (eyes) tightly and breathing a silent prayer than harrison Ford had not been a lunatic in that old film, He placed a foot over the edge in mid-air and stepped forward, dropping a half meter down and onto- nothing!

Nai (No)! Not nothing- he was standing on a perfectly camouflaged pathway leading across the huge chasm. Again his compadres mimiced his moves, crossing the void quickly and safely. Han picked up a few handfuls of gravel and tossed them across the 'invisible' bridge so that they could find it on the way back.

"Wait. We may need this, sir." said Angie, hefting a strange star-shaped weapon.

"Christ, princess! That's the 'Glave o' Krull', ain't it? Where'd you get it?" cried Han.

"Last time I saw that damned thing was when Lord Ivy (Ivanhoe the dark Knight) had it a few years ago." assented Molly.

Han handed it back to Angie who attached it to her belt and followed Han into an inner chamber of this mammoth mausoleum. At its far end loomed a sealed portal. When words, curses and brute force failed to open it, Han and Zach emptied their plasma rifles into it. Then Molly blasted it a trio of Mark XXXIII shells. Servalan booted it and then hopped around on one foot howling in pain.

"Dumbass." giggled Angie.

a href=".com/photos/photo/973326-Servalan-from-Blake-s-7" img src="/images/members/2012/3/21/4/4/4465032331832979619_" title="Servalan from Blakes 7" /a

"Shithead!" replied the Federation president.

"Shut the Hell up the pair of ya and that is a kami shimatta direct order!" yelled an angry and frustrated Zach Zero.

"Try the glave." suggested Callahan.

"Couldn't hurt, that it couldn't." agreed Solo.

"Use the force, princess." he added jokingly.

The glave slipped from Angela's nervous fingers but amazingly the thing remained suspended in mid-air! Moving her hand over it caused the glave to move and damned fast too! The weapon cut through the portal like a knife through hot butter! When the portal finally dissolved into the aether so did the glave!

Behind the portal was revealed to be a chamber that glowed like 'G'Targ'itself! ('G'Targ' was Corellian Heaven).

"Sir, I see no visible light source in there." breathed Angie in awe.

Does it need one, girl? Look." replied her skipper. (Wonder where that lights coming from hazu)?

The immense chamber was crammed floor to ceiling with various collections of loot! Gold, diamonds, precious stones, manuscripts (The real prize as far as the Templars were concerned), statuary, paintings, art, death masks from tombs across the galaxies &c.

"It looks like that room below the church in New York City in 'National Treasure', that it surely does." whispered an awestruck Zachary Taylor Zero.

"The mysterious Templars' 'treasure trove', I presume, kid?" asked Han and Angie nodded.

"Wowie! I can buy out all the malls on 'Shimougou' and still have loads left over, Caggie!" crowed Flaysie Allster who was sitting waist deep in a pile of gold and gems.

"We're rich, Zachie! I may just give up my day job!" yelled Servalan excitedly.

"That is oro you think eh? Hands up onegai, ladies and gentlemen." ordered a strangely sinister voice which sounded all too familiar to Solo, Zero and Callahan.

Heads turned and Solo tasted ashes in his mouth. He, Zach and Molly breathed a name they had thought they never would again ever-

"Khan!" they all cried as one.

"How the friggin' Hell did you get outta the Gallifreyans' 'matrix'? You were sealed in a Kalazkanite (a clear but indestructible alloy composed of Kelvinite and Plexeleine) cylinder to boot!" thundered the usually unruffled Han Solo.

"I will gladly explain all of that to you later, General Solo. For now you will all onegai drop your weapons. Ah! General Solo, Admiral Zero and Lt Commander Callahan I am already acquainted with but who is this kawaii damsel in white?" asked the renegade despot outlaw in dulcimer tones.

"None of your damned business, you cowardly fiend!" snarled an angry Servalan.

"The Goody Two Shoes leader of the Federation should learn to keep her kawaii mouth shut!" said Khan. He fired once, his plasma disruptor beam gouging the wall mere centimeters beside Servie's leg. Angela leaped in front of the older woman.

"Stop it, man! I'm Sub-Ensign Angela Teresa maria D'Eon de Roncesvalles of the Intergalactic Star Command, you bloody monster!" cried Angie, shielding Servie's body with her own. Khan suddenly stopped smiling, stiffened and seemed to be musing about something or other.

"de Roncesvalles eh? Now where in the nine Hells of Dante's Inferno have I heard that name before? The 'Song of Roland' to be sure but that Terran fairy tale was millennia ago. (Khan snapped his fingers) Got it! Of course. Giles Pierre Francois Renoir D'Eon de Roncesvalles! The sole survivour of the Templar's original nine founders. I heard he was deceased. A pity." said the galactic pirate.

"He was my uncle!" snapped Angie. Zach, Han and Molly said a collective 'Oh no!' when they realized that Angie had just thrown away their last chance of avoiding bloodshed.

So then you are the last descendant of that distinguished ancestral line, my dear child. Where is the star map vidchart?" demanded Khan quietly.

"You're standin' in the treasure room, Khan so why do ya want the map?" drawled Han Solo who already knew the answer.

"Because the ancient ones who stuck this stuff here way back when would have protected their hoard with booby traps. The map will tell you how to deactivate them. Right, Khan?" replied Zach Zero.

"The man wins a Kewpie doll. Exactly, my dear Admiral. Now where is the damned map?" said an impatient space bucanneer.

"We left it behind on the 'Liberator', sir." lied Molly, trying to buy them some more time. To do oro she hadn't a clue.

"Jimbo! Beam us all back up there- now!" trilled Zach quietly but urgently. Khan laughed.

"Nice try. Sorry, Admiral but this chamber seems to be shielded somehow from Gamma and Kazza rays so I am very much afraid that your transporters will not function. Shall we try this again? You and I both know that without the map you could never have located this room or even this pyramid. Hand over the map and then you can all go home. I have no grudge against any of you. My score is with another admiral- James Tiberius Kirk. You have my word on these things. I just want the map." said Khan coolly and calmly.

"Give it to him, Angie." ordered a defeated Zero and the tall redhead reluctantly surrendered the precious vidchart to Khan.

"There. That was not so very hard, was it? I will now, as promised, settle General Solo's curiosity as well as Admiral Zero's and the Lt Commander's. You may or more likely may not know that John Berringer broke out of the penal colony on 'Lazix 7' some time ago.

"He assembled a crew, 'borrowed' a prototype star cruiser from the 3WA and liberated myself, Sutek and the 'Time Master' from the 'matrix' on Gallifrey. The Time Lords' 'Master' of course we left in the 'matrix' along with the evil 'Shadow Master'. The latter is a megalomaniacla fool and the former is quite insane. He still harbours amourous feelings for Mrs Higurashi you know.

"I do admit it was a stroke of luck to happen upon the 'Liberator' when we did. Since you appeared to be oncourse for the Federation complex I was about to try our luck elsewhere when you inexplicably changed course for this Kami-forsaken sector of space.

"I merely followed in your wake by hiding in your slipstream, 'cloaked' of course. How did I know of the treasure trove and the map? Simplicity itself. Sean O'Banyon, one of my former lieutenants paid a call on Uncle Giles who was kind enough to tell Sean all about them.

"Regrettably, the shimatta baka Mick terminated the old fool before discovering the map's location. I despaired and felt his loss keenly even after I had myself dispatched Sean to the world of the Doolahans, Banshees and Lord Varin. Finding you here, my dear Angela, was a very welcome bonus." explained Khan in a very silky voice which reeked of oil.

"You heartless bastard! You killed Uncle Giles! Well, you will NOT profit from his murder!" cried Angie, drawing her blaster.

"NO! Angie! Don't do it, kid! He'll kill you! Angela!" screamed Servalan wildly.

Angie fired and the map vapourized into nothingness in Khan's grasp.

"You damned little bitch! You will pay for that!" shouted Helmut von Kleist, Khan's last surviving lieutenant. Seems that pissing off Khan is tantamount to signing one's own death warrant!

"Belay that, Helmut! One of these five must have already memorized the damned thing otherwise this foolish child would not have so cavalierly destroyed it. So- which one I wonder?" said Khan softly.

"Wouldn't you like to know, pirate! Go to Hades with my curses dammit!" retorted Molly just before Helmut belted her in the jaw with the butt end of his plasma rifle. She collapsed like a pole-axed steer.

"Khan! That's enough!" cried Servie, tears in her big aoishi (blue) aizu (eyes). She really cared for the former Angel.

"Who is it?" he demanded menacingly while pointing his disruptor machine pistol at Molly Callahan's still form lying on the chamber floor. Angie and Servie began to cry.

"Me. I'm the guy you want, Khan. I know oro you need to know." drawled a devil may care Han Solo very nonchalantly.

"Then you will lead the way, General." commanded the madman despot.

"Your word first, Khan. When you get what you want, we all go our separate ways. Deal?" asked Han.

"Agreed. The word of Khan is sacred as you well know, General Solo. Lead on." said Khan. Han faced the others. Servie and Zach had helped Molly to sit up. Servie was binding a pressure bandage around the girl's bleeding jaw.

"Folks, you can trust him. Khan has never broken his word once he has given it. Best we do like he says and get moving." said Solo grimly. Zach nodded as did the rest.

"Molly can't walk so Angie and I will stay here with her." said Servalan.

"Then carry her. Everyone is coming with us. No exceptions, Madam , Garth and LaSeur will take turns giving the kawaii Lt Commander piggy-back rides. Now let us go. We have wasted enough time, General." growled an out of patience Khan.

"Can you do it, old buddy? Deactivate the traps in here?" whispered Zero.

"I never even saw that damned map for more than a few seconds, old pal. I'll just have to wing it. (Zach stared at him) Don't worry. I've seen all the 'Indiana Jones'movies at least five times." whispered a confident Han Solo who hadn't the slightest idea how to begin.

He thought back to that one brief glance he'd had at the vidchart and recalled 'penitent', 'footsteps' and 'worth' being in the first three riddles they had already solved. Below them had been the cryptic phrase 'Remember these truths' and that was it.

"Hey! Angie! C'mere!" he called and the redhead strode over to him and Zach.

"Yeah General? You rang, sir?" she joked even though she was almost crying again.

"You memourized the damned thing, girl, didn't you?" he whispered.

""Yeah. There were three quests, I mean they were more like riddles, sir. 'Only the penitent man may-" began the Templar girl.

"Yeah, I know. We already did them. What else?" asked the ex-pirate.

"Sorry, there was nothing else, sir." replied Angie and Molly tugged at her arm.

"On the back. More words." said Molly hoarsely, trying to talk around her damaged jaw.

"Can't remember all. But this order I think. 'Perdition awaits' was first. Then 'They who have gone before' and last was 'That which is most precious shall be abundant' followed by a funny phrase 'Remember these truths for they are thy salvation', sir." gasped Molly Callahan and then she passed out again.

Servie grabbed Molly away from Angie and charged an auto hypo syringe. She pumped 40 cc's of 'Kabrilon 9-X' into Molly's arm. The girl slowly came to once more.

"I'm sorry guys. There were a Helluva lot more words but I only got a short glimpse at 'em before 'Roshii-Aizu (Dead-Eye) Angela' blasted the map." apologized the navvie.

"Perdition. That's Biblical, Zach, ain't it?" asked a puzzled Han. Zach had received many gold stars for Sunday School attendance when he was a nipper while Han had avoided chapels whenever he could. He'd even been late for his own wedding to Leia, earning him a baleful look from his new brother-in-law, Luke Skywalker.

"Yeah. It's from er Levidicus, I think." replied Angie who had a perfect Sunday School class record. Her book had gold stars on every single page.

Khan suddenly decided (for reasons known only to him) it was a good time to harangue against his arch-nemesis James Tiberius Kirk.

"All across the Heavens I smite at thee. I shall hunt ye down to the ends of the Universes if I must, Kirk. To there I say and even 'round Perdition's flame shall I purse ye." he said, badly misquoting from the ancient 19th Century Terran novel written by Herman Melville- 'Moby Dick'.

"Hey Han! Oro the Hell's this crap on the walls over here? It stinks to high heaven, man." asked Servalan, fumbling for a cheroot.

"Huh? (Han took a whiff of the air) Nitre and Troxyleine. Highly explosive and- Servie! Don't!" yelled Solo, knocking the lighter away before Servie could use it to fire up her cheroot.

"Dammit girl! That stuff's volatile!" yelled Zach Zero.

"Another trap for us, sir?" asked Angela and Han nodded abstractedly, still trying to fathom the meaning of the 'Perdition' riddle. Then it hit him.

"Remember these truths. Thy Salvation. Penitent. Perdition. The penitent man kneels before Kami to avoid Perdition's flame! That's what Remember means gusy! It's the same damned crap all over again but with three new twists! Hit the deck and stay down! You guys too if you wanna live that is!" thundered Solo, yanking down Servie, Angie, Molly and himself just nano-secons before a block of blazing 'Carbonexileine' (space granite) swung right over their heads, missing them by a millimeter or two!

So close was this call that Molly's helmet was swept from her head and atomized instantly. Han and Zach caught the block by its base and used a blocki and tackle mechanism in the wall to tie it off while Angie and Khan's men extinguished the flames.

"Hey gang, looky what I just found!" exclaimed Flaysie Allster. She was pointing at yet another enigma- a second stone-flagged hallway with the stones bearing letters in another ancient alphabet. This time it was Khan's man LaSeur who supplied the answers.

"Avestan, my friends. In Avestan which is a form of ancient Persian, the name of Kami is Ahura Mazda but it can be spelled many other ways as well. Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, Hurmuz, Aramazd and Azzandara are all forms of this name. My uncle was an archaeologist and specialized in Terra's ancient Persia. He never shut up about this crap." explained the good-natured henchman.

"However, didn't old Zarathustra or Zoroaster or whatever he called himself proclaim Ahura Mazda as the uncreated god?" asked Angie who had also learned a lot from her uncle.

"Ahura Mazda has a lot more letters than Iehovah (Jehovah in ancient Sumerian) does and how do we know which stone means the space between the 'A' and the 'M' folks?" drawled Han.

"Gods were haughty and would never dream of separating themselves so there would be no spaces. I believe General Solo is correct, therefore, he will lead the way once more unles we have a different volunteer?" said Khan.

Suddenly everyone in the pyramid was as pale as a yuyu (ghost)!

a href=".com/photos/photo/973326-Servalan-from-Blake-s-7" img src="/images/members/2012/3/21/4/4/4465032331832979619_" title="Servalan from Blakes 7" /a

a href=".com/photos/photo/973321-DP-Flash-Angels-Iris-Lady-Flair" img src="/images/members/2012/3/21/1/4/1465032331589579619_" title="DP Flash Angels & Iris/Lady Flair" /a

END of Chapter 4. Chapter 5 coming along soon.


	5. Chapter 5 'Of Floating Rocks & Flaming H

'Galactic Treasure Hunt'

DISCLAIMER: OK Mr Khan, it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruko Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell.

Likewise a big domo arigatou (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future.

As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due.

Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the fifth chapter for your perusal.

CHAPTER 5 'Of Floating Rocks & Flaming Halls' or 'Molly Saves the Day'

A refresher for readers of Chapter 4 who have forgotten it or for newbies who missed it, this is how the fourth chapter concluded.

"Hey gang, looky what I just found!" exclaimed Flaysie Allster. She was pointing at yet another enigma- a second stone-flagged hallway with the stones bearing letters in another ancient alphabet. This time it was Khan's man LaSeur who supplied the answers.

"Avestan, my friends. In Avestan which is a form of ancient Persian, the name of Kami is Ahura Mazda but it can be spelled many other ways as well. Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, Hurmuz, Aramazd and Azzandara are all forms of this name. My uncle was an archaeologist and specialized in Terra's ancient Persia. He never shut up about this crap." explained the good-natured henchman.

"However, didn't old Zarathustra or Zoroaster or whatever he called himself proclaim Ahura Mazda as the uncreated god?" asked Angie who had also learned a lot from her uncle.

"Ahura Mazda has a lot more letters than Iehovah (Jehovah in ancient Sumerian) does and how do we know which stone means the space between the 'A' and the 'M' folks?" drawled Han.

"Gods were haughty and would never dream of separating themselves so there would be no spaces. I believe General Solo is correct, therefore, he will lead the way once more unles we have a different volunteer?" said Khan.

Suddenly everyone in the pyramid was as pale as a yuyu (ghost)!

And that was how we left you, dear readers.

As they watched in fascination the strange alphabetical symbols vanished from the stone flags on the floor of the passageway!

Servie stepped forwards towards it and Zach threw her backwards a split nano-second before a 'Bouncing Betty' incendiary mine popped up, detonated in mid air and bathed the passageway in white hot flames!

Puzzled as Hell, Han shined his laser sword on the floor, remembering not to move any closer to the stone-flagged corridor.

"It ain't marked no more." he drawled. Then the ex-smuggler pointed the sword up and whistled. The ceiling was covered with those same strange letters and symbols which had until a few seconds ago, been marked on the floor.

"Oro the Hell?" said Servie after dusting herself off.

"I got it! Ya touch a symbol up there (The ceiling above the corridor was a mere four feet from the floor) and step on its corresponding flagstone directly below it and we already know oro happens if ya step on the wrong one, don't we, Servie?" admonished Solo. Servie nodded ruefully and rubbed her derriere where it had hit the stone wall when Zach had thrown her backwards.

"Look!" croaked Molly excitedly.

"There's 'Ohrmazd', one of the names that Mr LaSeur said was used by the ancients for 'Ahura Mazda's name! Let me do it." So saying she leaned forwards on her toes and touched the ceiling where the first letter was. At the same time her left toe touched the stone directly below it.

"Here goes. 'O' and now-" she began and Zach bearhugged the slim navvie just managing to drag her back before she was incinerated. LaSeur struck his fist into his hand and swore.

"Now I remember what Uncle Georges told me about those other names! Gods never give the true spellings of their names. To do so would mean giving someone else power over the god himself or herself. 'Ohrmazd' was sometimes spelled differently but for important things gods always preferred to use their common names- the ones that most of their worshippers used when deifying them. So Captain Khan is correct. We must use 'AhuraMazda' without the space between the 'A' and the 'M' or we'll never get through here." explained Alain LaSeur.

"Angie, mark a path above with your laser blade. Blast each stone up there that has 'AhuraMazda' letters on it. Avestan and ancient Persian letters closely resemble our Terran English letters. Hurry now kiddo and I'll trace the path for us. All done? Good. Now when I step on a flag blast a number on it that I yell out. OK? (Angela nodded and ignited her blade) Here we go." said Han.

He carefully touched 'A' and stepped on its marker stone below.

"One!" he yelled and Angie dutifully blazed a big #1 on the stone upon which he stood. So it went until all ten stones had been numbered. Solo chuckled.

"Ya can c'mon out again, Khan. Even you should be able to count to ten. Just step on the stones in numerical order or we'll have fricasseed bucanneer for lunch! Let's go guys. Ladies first." called Han.

Fifteen careful minutes later everyone had safely crossed the cramped passageway and stood facing a deep crevasse or cavern. A dead end or was it?

Zero faced Khan. "Level with me, 'd ya get word out to Johnny Berringer when your ass was sealed in Plasticene?" whispered Zach.

"Have you forgotten, my dear Admiral, that Sutek is a telepath or did you not know that?" chortled a grinning pirate chieftain.

Ahead of them they could still see their goal, the treasure room. However, that tantalizing treasure now seemed further away than ever.

Molly extended her booted foot out over the cliff.

"Nai! Not this time, princess! Get back!" roared Han Solo.

At this juncture, it should be noted that although von Kleist and his piratical lackeys had been detailed to care for Molly and Servie, the girls didn't trust them so they stayed as close to the rest of the party as they could.

Zach peered over the edge of the chasm and dropped a stone over or rather he tried to except that the rock floated and seemed suspended in mid air!

"Ooh! Auntie Yuri said that she and Auntie Kei snuck into a penal colony like that once! It's called 'cavity will' and they surfed in on it! Can't we do that too, Uncle Han?" bubbled Fllay Allster.

"I think she said 'gravity well' kid and that was only a few hundred meters below their ship." corrected Zero.

"Maybe. It does seem to be some sorta updraft. Zach, lend a hand. Let's shove these big flat rocks over and see if we can make a bridge outta 'em, old buddy." said Han.

As soon as they had several large flat 'surf board' rocks suspended in mid air, Flaysie, Servie and Angie leaped onto the first three.

"All of ya geton the same one, dammit! If anything happens I don't want you drifting apart." yelled Solo. Molly jumped onto Servie's since it was furthest out from the edge and then she yanked Flaysie aboard.

"Now sit yer asses down or that wind could sweep ya off!" growled Zero.

Han and Zach leaped astride the next one and sat down.

"C'mon in, Khan. The water's fine." drawled Han. The edge of the cliff was shaped like the head of a giant unicorn and Khan gingerly stepped off it and over the put his foot on a rock and sat down. He signed for Helmut, LaSeur and the rest of his men to follow suit. Soon the entire party were riding the rocks.

Ever the practical one, Molly wondered aloud "How do we steer these things?' to which Han repeated some of the words he did recall from the map.

"Have faith. Remember what the map said, Molly." His words were justified because their small flotilla of floaters soon reached the opposite cliff.

The same silvery 'river' that Flaysie had seen from above now blocked their path. It was a river of lava though, not water, white hot flames.

"Now what, genius?" demanded Servalan.

"Gimme a minute, will ya?" drawled Solo.

"Have faith is oro the map told us and so far it ain't let us down yet, has it?" he added.

"Look Han, just because I jumped off a friggin' cliff for ya don't mean I wanna walk through flames too! Oro do ya think we are- Hindu fakirs or whirling dervishes?" snapped Molly Callahan.

"All is not oro it seems to be. That's oro Uncle Giles used to say so how do we know it ain't just an illusin there, gang?" wondered Angie.

"Oro did that clue about 'those who have gone before us' mean, Uncle Zachie?" asked Flaysie.

"I hope we don't find out kid 'cause that's a reference to the dead. Yyu, ghosts, ju-on, spooks or Zombies maybe." replied Zero nonchalantly.

Han selected a fist-sized rock and hurled it into the lava pool. He had to duck when it came flying right back at him.

"That ain't no shimatta illusion, folks." growled Zach. Khan burst into raucous laughter.

"You baka morons! That's a force field barrier. Find the shield generator and knock it out, General Solo." he chortled merrily. Han bristled.

"Take a damned good look, Khan! Where does it begin and where does it end?" drawled Han.

"Use your tricorders to locate it, you idiots!" shouted an impatient Khan.

Angie sighed, unclipped her tricorder, set it to standard frequencies and pointed it first forwards, then backwards, to port (left), to starboard (right), down at the floor and up at the ceiling but the super sensitive instrument remained silent.

"Vas ist der range of das plaything, Templar maedchen?" asked Helmut von Kleist.

"A thousand kilos, about 750 miles, more or less, sir." replied Angela.

"Angie, didn't the map have numbers on the borders?" asked Han. Angie nodded.

"Molly thought they were latitude and longitude but they made no damned sense, sir. Wait a sec! Oro if they were triangulating frequencies for this thing, Mr Solo? Let me see now. 55.1; 72.3; 89.12 and 17.45. There. Now I'll triangulate them and there!" yelled Angie.

A steady hum was emanating from her tricorder. Angie walked back the way they had just come and stopped. She gazed steadfastly at their captor.

"If you want this loot, pirate, do what I tell ya. Give Servie one of those Mark XXXII long range ion cannons. Servie? Take aim where I am pointing. Exactly where my finger is pointing." ordered Angie.

"But you are pointing at nothing, Angie." said Servie with a confused look on her face. After all a Mark XXXII could reduce this cavern and the pyramid to dust in a split nano-second!

"Just aim and fire the damned thing!" yelled the subby.

"Do it, Servie. We gotta trust her." commanded Zach Zero.

"All of ya hug those sidewalls and for Kami's sake don't get behind Servie! That backblast will atomize ya! Ready, kiddo? (Servie nodded) Fire in the hole! Now!" shouted Han.

KA-WHOOM! The huge Mark belched fire from both ends as Servalan launched three dead head shells into a spot in mid air where Angie was pointing.

BOOM! There was a resounding explosion and a thunderclap shook the chamber like a giant shaking a pesky vending machine for his candy!

"Look!" yelled Molly making her damaged jaw burn like Hell.

Where the river of flames had been but a moment before, there was nothing! The same stentorian voice boomed forth yet again.

"Ye hath done well. One test remains to prove that ye are indeed worthy of the secrets of our most holy order. There are two switches on the wall to your left. One of them will cause this pyramid to implode thereby burying this room and ye who be in it for all eternity. The other will raise the portcullis allowing ye access to the room beyond where our most holy of secrets are housed.

"Any attempt by ye to force open yonder gateway portcullis will cause this chamber to implode and bury all within it forever. Choose the right one and live. Choose the wrong one and die. Choose well.

"To the right ye will see a two-headed idol. Ye may ask one of those heads a single question. The green head always speaks to ye the truth while the golden head will always speak to ye lies. I wish ye good fortune. Farewell."

Suddenly Molly snapped her fingers. "By Jove! I think I've got it!" she shouted, causing her to wince in pain when she opened her damaged jaw too far.

Molly Callahan thinks she has the answer to the voice's cryptic queries. Do you?

END of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 coming along soon


	6. Chapter 6'NickofTime'UnexpectedCargo'

'Galactic Treasure Hunt'

DISCLAIMER: OK Mr LeSeur, it's all yours. First I want to thank Haruko Takachiho (Kami bless him) for graciously allowing me to use his creations w/o which there would be no tale to tell.

Likewise a big domo arigatou (thank you very much indeed) to any other creators whose works, characters, creations &c. I may use now or in the future.

As always please feel free to use any of my own myriads of creations in your own works. I ask only that a similar disclaimer be posted with your works giving credit where credit is due.

Well you've all been on tenterhooks wondering about this big Galactic Hunt and nai (no), we are not hunting DragonBalls again well not yet anyway but who knows what the future might bring eh? Here is the fifth chapter for your perusal.

CHAPTER 6 'Nick of Time' or 'Unexpected Cargo'

A refresher for readers of Chapter 5 who have forgotten it or for newbies who missed it, this is how the fifth chapter concluded.

"If you want this loot, pirate, do what I tell ya. Give Servie one of those Mark XXXII long range ion cannons. Servie? Take aim where I am pointing. Exactly where my finger is pointing." ordered Angie.

"But you are pointing at nothing, Angie." said Servie with a confused look on her face. After all a Mark XXXII could reduce this cavern and the pyramid to dust in a split nano-second!

"Just aim and fire the damned thing!" yelled the subby.

"Do it, Servie. We gotta trust her." commanded Zach Zero.

"All of ya hug those sidewalls and for Kami's sake don't get behind Servie! That backblast will atomize ya! Ready, kiddo? (Servie nodded) Fire in the hole! Now!" shouted Han.

KA-WHOOM! The huge Mark belched fire from both ends as Servalan launched three dead head shells into a spot in mid air where Angie was pointing.

BOOM! There was a resounding explosion and a thunderclap shook the chamber like a giant shaking a pesky vending machine for his candy!

"Look!" yelled Molly making her damaged jaw burn like Hell.

Where the river of flames had been but a moment before, there was nothing! The same stentorian voice boomed forth yet again.

"Ye hath done well. One test remains to prove that ye are indeed worthy of the secrets of our most holy order. There are two switches on the wall to your left. One of them will cause this pyramid to implode thereby burying this room and ye who be in it for all eternity. The other will raise the portcullis allowing ye access to the room beyond where our most holy of secrets are housed.

"Any attempt by ye to force open yonder gateway portcullis will cause this chamber to implode and bury all within it forever. Choose the right one and live. Choose the wrong one and die. Choose well.

"To the right ye will see a two-headed idol. Ye may ask one of those heads a single question. The green head always speaks to ye the truth while the golden head will always speak to ye lies. I wish ye good fortune. Farewell."

Suddenly Molly snapped her fingers. "By Jove! I think I've got it!" she shouted, causing her to wince in pain when she opened her damaged jaw too far.

Molly Callahan thinks she has the answer to the voice's cryptic queries. Do you?

"I remember that Doctor Timelord 4 told us all about some 'Eye of Horus' thing he had to retrieve from Mars and he was faced with the same problem as we have here. Han, Pull that yellow switch on the right. (Han hesitated and bit his lip) Don't ask me to explain it dammit! Just do it!" yelled Molly Callahan.

Again han hesitated and Khan leaped towards Solo.

"The brat's lying, General! They mean to maroon me here the same way Admiral Kirk marooned me om Seti Alpha 4'! Out of my way, General Solo!" shrieked the madman and he yanked down on the red switch instead of the yellow one.

"Ye hath chosen poorly. May the Almighty Father have mercy on thy souls. Ye hath fourteen minutes before annihilation doth commence. Farewell." boomed out the voice as the floor of the chamber opened to reveal a river of white hot lava far below.

Something tells me that's neither an illusion nor a force field, folks. Get back and hurry!" shouted Han Solo. The gap which was already several hundreds of metres wide began widening even further,

Five of Khan's goons tried to leap across the gap and fell screaming into the fiery pit. Huge blocks of stone began falling from above as the ceiling collapsed in on them. The survivours took to their heels and began running back the way they'd just come.

"The treasure!" howled Khan.

"Gone! All gone!" sobbed Helmut von Kleist.

"You will be too if ya don't get yer fat ass moving!" cried Zach Zero who was waiting atop the cliff of the floating rocks. He checked his wristchromo.

"Eight minutes left. Let's hustle, people! It's no good dammit! We'll never make it back in time! It's been nice knowing all of ya, even you, Khan." said a despondent Fleet Admiral.

Suddenly Angie remembered oro her Uncle Giles had given to her when she was still a little girl and she quickly unzipped her jumpsuit. Her hand yanked the green stone amulet off her neck. It was glowing like an emerald flame. Holding it aloft, she closed both aizu (eyes) and cried out to the darkness.

"By fire and by flame we came, not to seek fame. Show us the way through Perdition's flame to Him and our Salvation. Hear my plea, old ones. I, Angela Teresa marie Francoise D'Eon deRoncesvalles, the very last of our long line of Knights of the Most Holy of Temples implore ye. Show us the path to Righteousness. Please help us, my ancestours. I ask ye this in the name of Kami, our one true God." intoned Angie and the voice again boomed out.

"Use ye floating pathway and trust in the Almighty, my child. All will be well. Ye must have faith." it thundered.

"Han, Servie, Flaysie, Molly, Angie, Khan, LeSeur, Helmut! Hurry up dammit! Only seven minutes left! Grab a big flat rock and shove it over the cliff! Follow the updraft's current!" cried Zach.

Finally, with less than five minutes until oblivion, the little band was speeding above the flaming river and heading for kami alone knew where. Anyplace was better than being buried alive.

Without warning, the updraft abruptly threw them onto a small ledge high up on the side of the pyramid. They were marooned just a few feet to the left of the entryway. Their rocks hit the side of the structure and disintegrated.

They all leaped the few feet necessary to reach the entrance except Flaysie. The little crybaby bawled and whined that she could not make it across until finally Helmut and Khan tossed her across to safety and then leaped across themselves. Han was the last one to reach the safety of the portals.

Looming in the distance was a welcome sight- the 'Andrea Dorian' but Zach knew they could never reach it in time. The same held true for Khan's 'borrowed' prototype starcraft. Han knew it too.

"Jimbo! Get a fix on us and beam up everything within a two kilo radius! Get a move on yer ass! Han out!" trilled the wily ex-smuggler.

Suddenly the moon split in twain! Allo f them and the shuttlecraft as well as Khan's ship had just materialized inside the 'Libertor's cargo bays in the proverbial nick of time.

"Quick! Back the way we came and don't spare the Kami shimatta hyperdrives! Go dammit!" trilled Zero anxiously.

"Brace yerselves as best ya can and hold on tight, folks." drawled Han.

"Flat on the deck!" cried Khan, throwing himself prone to the floor.

The mighty engines hummed and the warp core roared as Hawking hit 60 Warp and left an exploding moon in their wake.

"OK Flaysie, where's the loot?" demanded Cagalli Yula Athna when she brought them some hastily replicated provisions.

"Such a senseless waste! All of that knowledge is gone forever!" wailed a sobbing Angie.

"No loot!" wailed an angry Servalan.

"No shopping spree at Higurashi after all!" lamented a crying Flaysie Allster.

"I need a cold compress for my jaw." observed Molly Callahan.

"Be grateful that we're all still in one piece!" growled Zachary Taylor Zero.

"By the way Khan- I'm placing your ass under arrest for grand theft starship, breaking out of prison and that's just for starters. I pity you when you get turned over to her, my friend." chortled Zero.

"Oh bitter day! You have not seen the last of Khan, that you most certainly have not!" promised the warlord pirate with a maniacal laugh.

"Yo Khan! Oro the oni (devil) happened to those other three looney tunes who escaped with you? The 'Time Master', Sutek and Berringer?" asked Solo while he was busily disarming Khan, Helmut and LeSeur.

"The 'Time Master' simply vanished when Johnny destroyed his cylinder so Kami knows where he is now. Sutek, although freed from his cylinder is still trapped within a 'time corridor' which is within a 'time loop' so he is still in Gallifrey's 'Matrix'." explained Khan.

"That's only two. Where's Johnny Boy (Berringer)?" demanded Zach.

Khan pointed down towards the other end of the cargo bay where both the 'Andrea Dorian' and the 'Midori the Second' (Khan's pilfered 3WA ship) were docked.

"On my cruiser and locked in my brig, Admiral. I didn't trust the little shit as far as I could throw a 'Bison Fields' asteroid. Where are we headed, Admiral?" replied Khan.

"Back to gallifrey for you I'm afraid. I've been ordered to return Johnny Boy to 'Intergalactic Space Command' HQ on 'Serutan 5' first. Suddenly the 'Liberator' slowed without warning.

"Hey Jimbo! Why'd ya slow down? Oro's wrong, old pal?" trilled Zach.

"I didn't slow down, Zach. We're still at 60 Warp. When I extracted you guys and the two ships, Han told me to beam everything up within a two kilo radius. The transporters couldn't handle that task alone so was forced to use the tractor beams as well." trilled hawking.

"So?" trilled Han.

"So check your lower vidscreens." trilled Jimbo with a chuckle.

"What the Sam Hell! That's the Templar pyramid we just escaped from, Zach!" yelled Solo.

"It's way too big for our bays so let's make a detour to Shimougou and drop it off at the Academy. Flaysie really found it first and unexplored territory clearly falls under 3WA control. Unless ya want the 'Deadly Dynamic Duo' mad at us again that is." trilled Zach but nobody laughed.

"We're rich again!" crowed an exuberant Flaysie Allster.

"Unh unh kiddo. The 3WA and the 'UG' will divvy up that loot equally betwixt all the members of the Federation. Most it will wind up in museums anyway. We sure as Hell can't return it from whence it came, can we? Terra's (Earth) now a barren wasteland." replied Molly.

After all, at one time she had been one half of the very first 'Lovely Angels' team and she was giving some serious thought to someday rejoining the 3WA tro-cons (trouble consultants)- someday that is but not today, that's for damned sure.

"OK. Molly, set course for Furool (Foo-Lon) City on Shimougou. The Takachiho Academy. We are going home.

"Hey cap! Oro's the speed limit in 3WA space? We must be doing 50 Warp at least!" asked Integra.

"Sixty actually love but who's countin'?" drawled Solo.

"Twenty-five Warp i think but since when did we ever worry about speeding vidtickets? Keep the pedal to the metal and don't spare the hyperdrives, Number One. . Home James." trilled a grinning Zachary Taylor Zero.

Khan was scowling at him from the brig.

"Next time, Admiral. Next time." he mumbled half to himself.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay, Khan. That it most certainly not!" chortled the sole surviving descendant of the 'Knights Templar'.

END of Chapter 6.

THE END

Don't miss 'Angelic Pyramid' whose first chapter is coming very soon to a vidscreen near you.


	7. Ch6' I Saw It First'The Doggie's Eye'

NEW GALACTIC SOLUTIONS

Chapter 6 'I Saw It First!' or 'The Doggie's Eye'

DISCLAIMER: Hi! I am Mandora of Ganagal and I hail from Syphonia, home world of the RAVE Master. I have been asked to do the necessary honours this time around. First, we thank generously Haruka Takachiho and all of the other creators whose works, characters, places, locales and/or other creations we have been using or may soon use. Likewise, anyone who likes can use any of our own creations so long as they give credit where credit is due. Stop it, Elie! Behave yourself, darling.

Without further ado, here's your first narrator of this chapter, newly promoted Second Lt Julia Jane Marie Huntley. OK folks, I have to go and check with Uncle Hiram MacDougal 'cause we gotta find that darned old 'Dekka' Shadow Sword thing before the 'Shadow Master' (That was him doing the disclaimer stuff for this chapter.) does!

Allie was told by Mr Garner and Mr Galadriel that our mission was to locate the five parts of the sword and all the 'Dark Bring' shadow stones for it and then bring it to a secret world that only Uncle Hi knows about where it'll be 'unmade' like that 'Ring' from the cool trilogy vidflick we all watched last month!

"Hey! Janelle? Janey? Julia Janelle Huntley! Have you been litening to me or not? If you are going to be my assistant on this new 'dig', you're gonna have to be payin' more attention to me. Now, once again. The next segment of the 'D Sword' accordin' to this ancient text we caught Tommy Claypoole tryin' to destroy when we arrested him yesterday, is to be found 'where the celestial hunting dogs walk'." explained our resident archaeologist Scotsman.

"Hey, ya dumb mutt! Uncle Hi's talkin' about ya again! Hiya Janey, Prof." said Kouga the wolf youkai demon. He and Dog Boy InuYasha the big inu hanyou or dog demon/human whatever were taking their java break in the 'star room' of the 'Daedalus'.

"No, Wolfie. I ain't a-talkin' about Dog Boy at all." chuckled the big Scot. He began ramming shag tobacco into his big dark wooden briar pipe. I hated that stuff but I was under direct orders from Allison Prydonia, our CO to assist Uncle Hi. That meant I was stuck here until I was dismissed. Nope! I still had two hours before my tea break! I was one of the few aboard who hated java!

"What the heck does it mean, old man?" growled InuYasha who was sharpening his Tetsusaiga blade with an old stone he'd 'borrowed' from the alchemist lady Izumi Curtis. Uncle Hi got his pipe going again and I swear, this guy smoked matches not the pipe! It was forever going out!

"Simple enough, is it not, child? If you were paying attention to your astronomy and astrology studies, that is? No? Not even a guess? The 'celestial hunting dogs' are the two 'dog stars' in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter." explained Mr Sherlock.

"Yes. I believe they are called 'Sirius' and 'Betelgeuse', my dear." added Dr John H Watson, MD of 221-B Baker Street, Marleybone West, London, England on ancient Terra. He was a fine Victorian gentleman. He and Sherlock were the original 'Odd Couple'. Whereas Dr Johnny was neat and tidy, Mr Sherlock was sloppy and seemed to be very disorganized indeed!

"And 'where they walk' means what, Professor?" asked Subaltern Angela de Roncesvalles who was pouring hot java and tea for all of us.

"They are positioned on either side of Orion, their master so 'where they walk' must refer to the centre of Orion himself." said the kindly grandfatherly gentleman whom everyone liked a lot. Then he hurriedly scribbled some notes on my PDO Unit's screen. Yup! You can use a pen, a pencil, a stylus, the keyboard or even a stick to 'write' on our PDO's!

"Those figures seem correct, Mr Holmes?" he asked and Mr Sherlock nodded sagely and was about to take a sip of his tea.

"Quite correct, Mac. Miss Angela? Which tin did you use for the tea?" asked Mr Holmes. Unlike the others, these guys did not care for 'replicated' tea and crumpets! So Suba Angie, our Templar girl, always brewed it for them.

"The one marked 'TEA', sir. Why?" she asked perplexedly.

"Because I was using it to store my 'Kaloris Atropine', my dear girl." replied the great detective.

"Eyedrops is what it's used for, ladies. Also a deadly poison and- Holmes! You promised me that you were not going to mix poisons in the galleys anymore! Sir Hiram! Jane! Don't drink any of that stuff! Dump the lot, Templar!" shouted Dr Johnny.

"I don't see why you guys won't drink the 'repped' stuff? Where do ya think we get the 'tea' for Angie to brew up for ya? It's 'replicated'." said Fllay Allster who was proceeding to order stuff from the ' ' vidwebsite on her portable comp unit.

The wolf and the dog had been sipping the brewed up tea and immediately upchucked it all over Angei and me! I was trying to wipe off my PDO Unit which was soaked! Not to fret none! Our PDOs are waterproof and shock resistant. A good thing they were 'cause I must drop mine fifty times a day! Mr Sherlock lent me his hanky and I managed to sop up the excess liquid from the vidscreen.

"Get those co-ordinates and course changes over to our 'navvy', Janey! Tell her to follow them exactly and in the order that I have written them. Now scoot!" ordered Uncle Hi and I double-timed it all the way to the lift stations where I took the 'express' up to the command deck and raced onto the bridge and through the nav room portal next door.

"Captain Morton? New course changes for us. Uncle Hi said not to deviate from what he's written down on my PDO vidscreen. He also said to follow them exactly and in the order he has listed them, mum." I said, jumbling my words together so that my words came out like machine gun bursts!

"Calm down, Sweetie! Catch your breath, for Kami's sake! Aha! He's taking us through Orion's 'belt' eh? And he's sure that we'll find the second piece in there somewhere, Jane?" replied Zoe the Beta Zoid Plutonian lady while she was deftly changing our course and then rechecking it with 'Nikita', our computer programming unit.

"Unh huh. Lord Claypoole's piece of vellum said the piece would be found 'where the celestial dogs walk', Cap." I said.

"Makes sense to me. You probably do not remember the solitary clue we had when we went questing for the 'Dekka' Sword a year ago and more, Janey, do ya? (I shook my head.) The only clue ever given had been to 'Seek that for which ye quest in the interstices (places) between the stars beyond Pluto'. Coming from the direction we are, Orion is beyond Pluto. Tell Uncle Hi that ETA will be four solar days. There are no 'short cuts' between here and Orion unless we use the 'Joirian Nebulae' and I do not recommend it. We would only shave a quarter of a solar day off our voyage anyway." explained the brunette chief navigator.

"Yes, mum. Should I inform the Commander as well, mum?" I asked but before she could answer me-

"No need, Jane. I heard the whole thing. I am right next door to the nav room ya know?I concur, Zoey. That 'nebulae' is too great a risk for us to take this early in our searches. Please ask Ed Elric to put together a team of alchemists and alkahestrists and report to me in the 'star room' upstairs after dinner tonight. Say 1900 hours, 7 PM. I have an idea. Thanks, Janey." said our cooler than cool Commander Prydonia of Gallifrey or should I say, Shimougou?

By the time I had returned to the 'star room', Uncle Hi and Mr Starwind and Miss de Roncesvalles, Mr Sherlock and Dr Johnny, Mr Murdoch and Mr Stiles, Mr Gordon and Mr Angel and quite a few of Naruto's Ninja Shinobi pals were sprawled out on the deck floor which was covered with bits of parchment, vellum, papyrus, papers, vidfiles, vid-documents, maps, charts and other junk including java mugs, tea cups, trays of goodies and urns of 'repped' beverages.

"About four solar days, huh Miss Huntley?" asked the big tall knight in shiny armour whom we all knew as Alphonse Elric. He was not, as I soon found out, the 'Fullmetal Alchemist' at all! He had politely explained that 'Fullmetal' was his brother Edward!

"Oh, the little boy? Your younger brother, Alphonse?" I had added.

"I aint no short pipsqueak! And I'm Al's older brother, Lt Huntley!" Edward had shouted to the rafters of the ship!

"Brother! Jane did not call you a short pipsqueak. Please excuse him, ma'am. Ed's sensitive about his height and his age. He's a year older than me." replied Alphonse. Then he explained to me why brother had an automail arm and leg and why he had to 'wear' the suit of armour! Poor children! Of course, after that outburst from Edward, I made darn sure that I did not say it aloud!

"Yes but how did you know, Al?" I asked when he had correctly guessed our vessel's ETA to our new destination.

"I did the calculations with old Mac here and Watson, Miss Janelle." chortled Mr Sherlock with a merry twinkle in his eyes.

"It must be on one of these asteroids or atolls, guys. It can't be on either of the dog stars but then how do we find it?" grumbled Lt Commodore Legato Bluesummers, a Beta Zoid from the planet of Gunsmoke. I cleared my throat.

"I think I might be able to answer that, sir. I believe that the Commander is going to use alchemy to find it." I said and I immediately wished that I had kept my big mouth shut!

"How are we supposed to find it? We're alchemists, not mediums or clairvoyants, Julia!" yelled Ed Elric and that was the last straw in my book anyhow!

"I hate that name, Mr Elric! That was the name of one of our dairy cows on the farm where I was born on 'Venuzia 8'! I have my inebriated Uncle Chet to thank for that name! Janelle was my dear auntie's name who went by Jean so to keep from getting us confused, Daddy started calling me Jane and the kids at school and the Academy called me Janey! However, if you call me Julia once more, any of ya, I'll clobber the daylights outta ya! Besides, it was the Boss's idea to use alchemy, not mine! Time for my break! Back in a half hour." I said angrily and boy! was my face ever red!

"See what you did, brother? Now Miss Janey's mad at us!" scolded the big knight.

"I didn't mean nothing by it, Al. I'm sorry." replied Edward and he jogged off in my wake. He did apologize and I did forgive him. After all, I had accidentally insulted him earlier as well, had I not? I apologized to him and soon we were chatting merrily away while he used his 'hands on' alchemy to heat up my tea and scones! Maybe having an alchemist around was not going to be all that bad after all.

After dinner, I was given an announcement by the Commander to have Niki deliver it over the PA system to everyone.

"Attention! All Beta Zoids, alchemists, alkahestrists and all hands that have telepathic abilities are to report to the dining room at 1900 hours, 7 PM. This is a direct order from our CO, Colonel Prydonia. That is all." blared out over the squawkboxes all over the ship. Then the Commander dismissed me but she asked that I report to the dining room at seven. After all, I was a yeoman and secretary even though shorthand usage had been discontinued a century and a half ago!

At the appointed hour, we had quite a brood in the dining room. I arrived and asked everyone to quiet down which turned out to be the wrong thing to say. Everyone immediately wanted to know why they had been called in there. Of course I had no clue as to why the Boss had wanted them all rounded up! Then Allie arrived with Mr Popo who bellowed for silence and that did shut them up!

The very first thing she did was to dismiss the demons and Saiyaans who didn't know what a Beta Zoid was nor what telepathic abilities meant so they and all the soul reapers and Minja Shinobi warriors had shown up as well! Exasperated, she was starting to lose it when her Cousin Doctor walked in and plunked his hat on the table and shushed up everyone.

"A show of hands now please. Who can read minds and communicate using their minds? Fine, you will remain. Now, who is a practicing alchemist or whatever the Xiang version of that science is called. Excellent! You also stay here. Anyone here who can foretell the future or practice the magical arts or witchcraft? Good. You can also stay. Everyone else? Thank you for coming but we do not have need of your services at this time. Dismiss them, Poppet. See? AQll we needed to do was to keep our heads while all others are losing- Never mind. Now you can start your meeting, Allison." he said with a yawn.

"Those of you whom my cousin has eliminated, thank you but you are dismissed. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you tonight." announced my mistress and there were grumblings all around and references to 'dotty females' and like phrases but they left to go back to whatever they had been doing.

"I want all of you to do whatever it is you do to concentrate your thoughts or minds and seek out anything strange in this sector of space." said the Commander and she indicated the space where Orion's 'belt' of stars was on the star vidcharts which were suspended holographically in midair above the table.

"Whatever you locate just might be the second segment of the infamous 'Shadow Sword', lads and lasses so try as hard as ye can. We will really be grateful, folks." said Uncle Hiram MacDougal.

"Dunno if this is what you wanted, Hi but there seems to be an extra star right smack dab in the centre of Orion's 'belt' and it definitely does not show on the star vidcharts." said Legato Bluesummers pointing to a gap between the stars.

"I agree. There is something there that shouldn't be there, mum." added Deanna Troi.

Soon the alchemists and alkahestrists and other Beta Zoids were admitting that they too have 'sensed' something in that same area of the Hunter constellation.

"Yup. I sense it too. Should I have Han and Gene change course, Allie?" asked Zoe Morton and the Boss nodded.

"By all means, dear. Make it so. ETA to this point?" replied my mistress and Zoe borrowed my PDO Unit to do some hasty calculations before she answered.

"Three solar days. 72 solar hours, maybe a little less, Al. I just sent the necessary corrections to the pilots, mum. With your permission, I would like to return to the nav room and check out the scans." responded our chief navigator.

"Of course. Go. Thanks a lot, Zoey. This meeting is over. Thank you for coming. Please enjoy the balance of your evening and my apologies for upsetting your plans. Dismissed." said our ever efficient CO.

"You heard the time lady, didn't ya? Get goin', guys!" snapped Mr Popo and the room emptied out quickly. I handed my PDO Unit with my copious notes to the Commander. She made a few minor changes to them and handed it back to me.

"Great! Please comm relay the report to Mr Garner with a copy message relayed to the rest of the G-Boys and Mr Popo, please. Many thanks for all your help, Janey. How about a cup of tea, kiddo?" she asked me with a wink and I nodded.

She gathered up her vidfiles and other stuff and crammed it into her rucksack which she hefted with her jacket and led the way to her quarters. She tapped in her security code keys and the portals slid open. I almost dropped my bundles when Whitey leaped into my arms!

"He really likes you, Janey. Sssh! Luna and Arty usually take a catnap about this time every evening. The repper's over there unless you prefer brewing it in a teapot? I was already ordering my favourite- Earl Grey Black and Oolong with honey and lemon juice. I also ordered a big urn of minty mocha java for my mistress. Them I asked for a big tray of BLT sandwiches and vanilla cookies.

"Here ya go, Whitey. Good boy." I said and I tossed the Boss's puppy a big 'Galaxy Growler' doggie treat. He grabbed it greedily and hopped up onto a sofa to gobble it up. Allie smiled at me.

"So? I understand that you were born on a farm on 'Venuzia 8'? That sounds really exciting, Janey. Up at dawn. Feed the chickens. Milk the moo cows. Plant the seeds. Harvest the crops. A lot more interesting than my childhood." sighed my new boss and I suddenly realized how lonely it must be for her. Sure she was a pampered child and had everything that I never did have but then again, I had lots of friends and relatives. And as if she had devined my very thoughts-

"No, dear. I was far from being spoiled and pampered as a time lady during my childhood. It was all school and technical stuff for my first 80 years! Sorry but I keep forgetting how long-lived us Gallifreyans are compared to the rest of the Universes. I do remember one time that I was allowed to observe what you would have called a 'county fair'. I was, let me see, 38, yes, 38 years old or the way you calculate my outward appearance, ten or twelve. It was fun and exciting even if I could not be there physically and could not touch anything." explained Allie and I must have looked surprised.

"When you are born in the 'Citadel', you live there your entire lives unless you are really fortunate like I was. You never go outside of the capitol's walls. I 'attended' that fair by watching it on a big vidscreen in the council chambers. I could speak to people there and they could speak to me but that was it! You do not realize how extremely lucky you were to have grown up having 'hands on' experiences firsthand on a real, honest to goodness farm! Someday I would like to visit your homestead, Janey. That is, if it would be OK with your folks? Sure I cannot tempt you to try this exquisite java?" she added.

"My Mama and Papa and Uncle Henry and Auntie Emily and my brothers and sisters would be proud to have such a fine time lady as yourself to be their guest, mum! Maybe you could bring your cousin Doctor along and dear little K-9 and some of our other companion friends? Pardon me, mum for speaking out of turn." I replied but her eyes were twinkling merrily away.

"It is such a delight to talk to you, my dear. Not all stuffy and proper like my relatives. I had very few friends back home which is why I was so happy to be chosen to serve in the 3WA and the Federation. Now I have loads of friends and I am making new ones all the time. By the way, speaking of friends, I wonder where Roddy has gotten to tonight?" she said.

"Hullo there, everyone! Mr Wolf and Mr Dog Boy have been toasting me all night with some great tasting soda pop! It is blue so it must be made with blueberries. My head feels all funny! Why are you making the room go around and around, Allzie? Oh, I did not know your niece was visiting us! Hiya! I'm Roddy! Pleased ta meet ya, kiddo! I think I will retire to my boudoir! Now where is it? Oh yes, here is my portal. G'Night!" slurred a very potted time lady and she walked into the hall closet!

"Jane! Black java and lots of it! Blueberry soda pop? C'mon Roddy. Bedtime. Just lean on me. That is right. Back in a sec, Jane." said my mistress and she half carried, half dragged Rodan Archipelago to her bedroom. I followed with the black java but by then, Roddy had passed out. Drinking 'Romulan Ale' tends to do that to a person! We tucked her into her bunk and then I decided that i really needed to get some rest when I saw that it was close to two in the morning.

I made my goodnights and patted a snoring Whitey and waved night night to the kitties before I yawned and strolled across the hall to my own rooms. I hoped that the Boss would not stay up all night again. I walked to my sitting room's 'window' and looked 'out' at the night sky. OK, so it's just a vidscreen that I can program to show whatever I wanted, it was still a little like being home and suddenly I was feeling really homesick! I cried myself to sleep and finally dropped off an hour later.

Hi! It is I, Allison! Is that grammatically correct? Did I even spell it correctly I wonder? Anyway, it is morning of the second day here and I am letting poor Janey Huntley have a lie in since she seemed to be feeling homesick last night. My fault of course for yakking about her childhood on the farm and all. There was a tap on my cabin's portals and then when I called 'Come.', my chief navigator Zoe Morton walked in and unceremoniously tossed Whitey off the easy chair and plopped herself down in it.

"In case you didn't know it, Boss, Janey is feeling rather homesick. I felt it last night. Did you know that the poor little thing actually cried herself to sleep? I was thinking that it might be fun to send her home for a visit?" she said mysteriously and my eyes popped!

"How do you suggest we do that, eh? Have someone pilot her back to 'Venuzia 8' in the 'Chester A Arthur'?" I snapped a mite snippily I am ashamed to say! Oh, the 'CAA' is one of the 'Daedalus's two shuttlecraft. The other is the 'Ullysses S Grant'. I was told these gentlemen were once famous USA prezzies on ancient Terra.

"Hardly. We are not allowed to send our children on visits during a mission, Colonel Prydonia. But I have an idea." said Zoey and I made a mental note to check her captaincy for 'time in grade'. This kid was subaltern material for sure. That is a ranking between a captain and a major in the 3WA. I sighed and poured us each a mug of java atop which I dumped a generous dollop of clotted cream and several spoons of sugar. We both had a sweet tooth like no other.

"OK. I am listening, my dear. How do we do it?" I asked, petting Whitey's fur. He had given Zoey that look and had promptly leaped onto my lap. At least he was not chewing up anything today- yet.

"Easy peasy, Al. We program a holodeck room like Janey's old 'Huntley Farm' in upstate 'New Yorkey' on the Southeastern quadrant of 'Venuzia 8'. Then we create Mama and papa, Uncle Henry and Auntie Emily, the hired help, her doggie and kitties and the rest of it. Then we blindfold her and take the kid there and leave her until we reach 'Nosy the Second' in 48 more solar hours. What do you say, Commander?" suggested Zoey, checking her wristchromo. I glanced up and saw by my wall chromo that it was close to ten.

"I go off duty in a few minutes and Lt Commander Nyssa takes my place, Boss. I don't mind setting all of this up on my own time. After all, it is for a good cause, isn't it? Well? What's the verdict?" she asked anxiously and I nodded my head and set Whitey down on the carpet beside one of Arty's catnip mice which the pup immediately began to chew up.

"OK. Make it so, Zoey. I will be sure and not release the jacaronda kitten from its sack. Trill me when you are ready and I will bring Janey up." I replied. She smiled and warned me not to forget about the blindfold. I promised and she left.

"Sorry I'm a wee bit late, Cap. Had to recharge my Mark III's power packs." said Nyssa the Trakken navigator.

"No harm done. Just watch out for floating space junk and be sure to tell Angel Johnny (Smith) or Mark (Gordon) about it. ETA to 'Nosy the Second' is 46 solar hours. Keep us on course and don't deviate from Uncle Hiram's figures on that vidscreen to your port (left) side." ordered the chief navvy.

"Huh? 'Nosy the Second'?" asked a puzzled Trakken girl.

"I named that hidden atoll that Blue found in Orion's 'belt' of stars after our first commander's pet doggie. You know that white ball of fluff that Mr White gave to Brigadier Edie (Jordan)? He gave Whitey to Alley Cat. Ooh! Wait until Artemis sees what Whitey's done to her new catnip mouse, he chewed it all to shreds!" giggled Zoey Morton.

"So? The Boss'll just rep her up another one, right? See ya at lunch?" replied Nyssa.

"Dunno. Depends how long my new project upstairs takes to finish. Don't worry. I'll rep up something nourishing and nutritious for myself if I have to give first lunch a miss. So long now. Try not to hit anything else, Mark. Bye." laughed Zoey.

"Is that kid ever gonna forget about that, Jonathan? I mean I only barely nicked that other speeder, didn't I?" moaned Mark.

"Yeah but that 'other speeder' did belong to KP Police Chief Roy Mustang and he was giving a lift to Mayor Riza Hawkeye at the time, ya know? I think that Roy was very fair in only fining you 350 UniCreds ($50 Terran USA currency equivalent) and having you take that defensive driving course with the ISSP in Moravian City on Mars." chuckled the Angel while Mark repped up another steak sandwich, his fifth!

"I know. I know. You're still a growing boy, right Mark?" added our pilot. Mark was co-piloting which emtailed just sitting still and not playing with anything- a perfect job for the former policeman.

"Right! Glad you agree with me, Jonathan. What the Dickens? Zoey!" yelled Mark, clearly forgetting that the nav room was less than two metres away from his seat.

"What is wrong, Mr Gordon? Captain Morton has gone off duty. May I be of assistance?" asked Nyssa, standing behind Mark's seat and staring at the vidscreens. Mark pointed at a blaze of light some hundred K kilometres in front of the ship.

"What is that thing and what's it doing right in front of us, Nessie?" howled Mark, reaching for the speed bar throttle controls.

"Suba Van Helsing! Hail that ship and tell them to change course immediately! Shields up! Evasive action, Jonny! Nami! Go get the Boss and quick! Any response to your hails, Teggie?" shouted a clearly distraught Trakken maiden. Well, what would you do if an X-Class supercollider starship was on a direct collision course with you and seemed to want to play 'chicken'?

"No response, Nessie! Yo! Get the Hell outta our way! Shoot that damned thing, Caggie! That's an order!" yelled Teggie.

"Belay that order, Lt Athna! Open a hailing frequency, Sir Integra. I say! this is the 3WA/Federation patrol starship 'Daedalus', Colonel Allison Prydonia, Commanding. Please alter your course and reduce your speed. Are you receiving me? Over." I trilled through the vidmike. I had dashed onto the bridge just as Suba Van Helsing had started barking out orders. Whitey, Luna and Artemis were at my heels. A fully recovered Rodan Archipelago was studying the vidscreens intently.

Without another word, Roddy's gloved hand pulled two toggles down and turned a small wheel. Instantly the 'ship' vanished from our vidscreens!

"A holo projection, Allie. It originated from the holodecks. Someone must have hit a wrong programming key up there. Do you know who is up there, Al?" asked Rodan and I said 'no.' I did not wish to spoil Janey's surprise!

"That's all it was? A picture of another ship?" asked Mark.

"Yup. Just a projected image of a real ship, Mr Gordon." explained Roddy.

"That got me so upset that I'm hungry again! Gotta rep up a pizza or two. Want anything, Jonathan?" asked Mark.

"Goodness! We have lunch in a few more minutes. Can't you wait?" asked the Angel.

"First lunch is seating now. Come and get it." announced Nikita.

"You go first, pal. I'll hold down the fort, I mean, the bridge." said Jonathan.

"Thanks a lot, buddy! I sure am starving!" said Mark and he jogged down the hallway to the dining room.

"Starving? He's only had six pizzas, eight burgers, ten milkshakes, four, no, five steak sandwiches, mountains of fries and goodness knows what else!" said Jonathan.

"What's he doin'? Tryin' to beat the Saiyaans and demons?" drawled Han Solo who had slid into Mark's seat beside Jonathan Smith.

"Allie? It's time. Bring up 'Homesick Hannah', will ya?" trilled Zoey into her comm badge.

"OK. Be right up. Thanks." I trilled back.

I gently eased open Janelle's hallway portals and then her bedroom's portals. I gently shook the sleeping girl's shoulder and she turned over to face me. She blinked a few times and sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Janey was wearing the cutest green 'leprechaun' pajamas I had ever seen. I knew that they had been a birthday prezzie from #7 Doctor and that janey liked them a lot.

"Got a surprise for you, dear so hurry and get showered and dressed. Here's your tea and breakfast. I will be in the sitting room." I said and she hurried into her bath room. I heard the water running and then, a few minutes later, the girl was standing beside me in a plain looking grey housedress and a pair of black Oxford shoes.

"I feel so homesick that I thought that if I wore what I used to wear on the farm back home that it might-" she explained.

"Hush now, child. I said I had a surprise for you and I do." I replied and began to bind a dark bandana across her eyes.

"Sssh! Would not be a real surprise if you saw it beforehand, would it? No peeking now. Give me your hand. Let us go." I instructed her and I led the girl to the lift stations, then up to the penultmate level of the ship and through the 'Arch' of Holodeck #5 before Zoey and I yelled 'Surprise!' and I yanked off her blindfold.

"It can't be! Yet it is! It's home! My home! I'm home again at last! Papa! Mama! Uncle Henry! Auntie Emmy! George! Freddie! Thomas! Kingsley! Esther and the kitties! It's so beautiful! Oh I do not know how you did it but thank you so very, very much!" sobbed the happiest child I had ever seen.

"It is not really-" I began but Zoey place a gloved forefinger against my lips.

"Let her think she's really gone home, Boss. Just for a little while. We'll come back for her in 40 hours. Let the kid have a nice visit." whispered Zoey Morton.

"OK and as soon as I can get her leave, that child is really going home for a visit! I swear it!" I replied quietly and we both tip-toed through the 'Arch' and hung a 'This Deck In Use!' sign on its outside portals.

"Incidentally, how in all of the worlds did you know exactly what Janey's olf homestead looked like and what her relatives, friends and pets resembled?" I asked. She grinned.

"I'm a Beta Zoid, remember? I read minds and when someone is as emotional as our Janey was, it is quite a simple task to read that person's innermost thoughts. You are thinking of your father whom most of us know of as your 'cousin' #4 Doctor and you are wondering if this new atoll that Legato discovered can truly hold the second sword piece. The atoll I named 'Nosy the Second' IS the second fragment of 'Dekka', Allie. I'm hungry and I missed lunch! Up for a drink in the rec room?" replied Zoe Morton.

"My treat, OK?" I said and we both giggled because aboard these crafts, nobody ever had to pay for anything! I ordered my usual java while Zoey had several drinks called 'Skotch & Sodas'. I recalled that the 'Bebop' 'cowgirl' Faye Valentine was rather fond of this libation as well. I took a tentative sip of the amber-coloured liquid and retched! It tasted horrible!

"Takes an acquired taste like beer or wine, kiddo. Tastes smooth as a baby's bottom to me." said Zoey with a shrug of her deeply tanned shoulders. I was curious.

"Is it the style and fashion here to expose so much of one's skin, Zoey?" I asked and I immediately felt like an idiot! Everyone was suddenly interested in our conversation! Mr Saitoh Hajime, our barkeeper laughed to break the tension.

"OK! How is the poor kid supposed to learn anything unless she asks questions? A baka one, I will admit but still a question. Well, Cap? Ya gonna answer her or not?" he laughed and I felt a little bit better. I guess I did have more friends here than I had originally thought that I had.

"Ya got that right, Contessa! Everyone aboard is your friend and we are all deeply devoted to ya. Don't ya ever forget that, Honeysuckle." said Mr Bluesummers but he was inside of my head, my mind! Oh right, he too was a Beta Zoid like Zoey.

"The style or fashion is whatever the Hell we want to wear, Allie. I wear tank tops underneath my jacket because they are comfy as all get out. Even when I am in formal magenta & blacks, underneath my jcket, vest and shirt there's a tank top. I can wear whatever colour of tank top I like with whatever I like written on it because I'm the only one that can usually see it! Same as you. If I hadn't have been around when you dressed this morning, I would never have known about those undies that Sango seems to have given to all of us gals for Kurisumasu in '50! Get the drift now, Boss? Hey! My glass is empty, Sai!" said Zoey and the newest Ninja Shinobi Chunin warrior from Team Kakashi Sensei, Sai, hastened to refill it for her. He was assisting Saitoh this afternoon.

"I thought you said you were hungry, Zoe." I asked. She pointed her pool cue stick at the guy who had once been Captain of the Third Squad for the 'Shinsengumi' which had long ago become the first Japanese police force on ancient Terra.

"Saitoh's repping up burgers, fries, O rings, cookies and a shake for me. You want anything, Alley Cat? Yo! Saithoh! Double my order, will ya? Al's joining me for a late lunch. Well? It's your turn, ya know?" said Zoey, igniting a cigarette using her laser sword hilt. I really must speak to her about that! It is quite dangerous to use a weapon of such power for mundane things like lighting a smoke!

"I know. I know and I apologize. Maybe I'll get a nice lighter for Kurisumasu this year? Hint. Hint." she giggled.

"I have the coloured spheroids with the lines drawn upon them? Correct?" I asked while I was rubbing something called 'chalk' on my stick's soft tip.

"If ya mean, you got the higher numbers with stripes, yeah. That is correct. Now will ya just shoot for Mjolnar's sake!" she snapped. I learned later from Uncle Hi that on her home world of Pluto, some members of the Morton clan had once worshipped Terran Norse gods. Very popular with her great-great-grand something or other had been Thor, the god of thunder. Legend had it that he wielded a mighty hammer named 'Mjolnar' which he struck on rocks to make thunderclaps.

I looked down the length of the stick and then made an 'o' with thumb and forefinger of my left hand and took a light but firm grip on the other end of the stick and slid the tip end through the 'o' fingers. Then I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Then I struck!

The stick thing slid along the cloth tablecloth and tore a deep gash through it before striking the white 'cue' ball and sending it flying across the room where Daddy caught it neatly in his left hand while his right was holding a book entitled 'How To Communcicate With Your Child' and which book he was concentrating on reading!

"I believe that this is yours, Poppet? Oh dear! Now I shall have to buy the 3WA a new billiards table, won't I? Here. Let me show you how I was taught the game, my dear child. (He raised his head and pocketed his book before turning to adddress everyone in the rec room.) I was going to save this announcement as a Christmas surprise but as we may be celebrating the holdidays right here, I will tell you all now that this fine upright commander of yours is in reality my very own flesh and blood child. Allison Victorine Prydonia is my daughter.

"However, she certainly did not inherit my billiarding skills nor her dear Mother's whom I lost many centuries ago. I say! Could someone please rep up a new cover for this table? Aha! I see that the 'cleaner 'droids' double as 'Mr Fix-It' repair 'droids as well! Now, pay attention, Poppet. This is the way I was taught to shoot by Mr Fats way back in 20th Century Terran Missouri. Slowly back and aim for the cue ball. A smooth follow through with a sharp cracking tap and the white ball strikes the '12' ball and into the pocket it drops. See? Now you try it and be careful, girl. I'm not made of money, you know?" he said.

My 'shot' struck the white spheroid straight and true but instead of knocking only one of the other balls into a hole, the '9', '11' and '14' balls also dropped into 'pockets' around the table! I was embarrassed and upset until I saw that Zoey had tossed down her stick thing and was pushing little rings across the wire suspended above the table!

"Your game, Boss. Who wants to play 'Ace' Prydonia next? Ah! Food! Yummy for my tummy!" said Zoey, brightening up when Sai carried our lunches over and set them on a table beside the pool table.

"You won, kiddo! When one player manages to put all of his or her 'stripes' or 'solids' into the pockets, that person wins the game. By the way, what's the 'forfeit'?" asked Saitoh, firing up his old briar pipe. Soon themost heavenly aroma was wafting its way into my nostrils. Not at all like that foul stuff that Mr Sherlock and Uncle Hi put into their pipes or those terrible cigars of Miss Van Helsing!

"Forfeit?" I said doubtfully. I had not an inkling of what he meant by the word.

"How about 'Spin the Bottle' and the loser has to strip for us?" yelled a slightly 'potted' Edward Elric much to his brother's chagrin. I could almost swear that Alphonse's armour was changing colour to a hue of bright pink! Just the lights I suppose.

"Brother! Don't say things like that! It isn't very nice!" admonished Alphonse.

"Maybe it ain't nice but it's sure as Hell fun to watch, ain't it Ed?" howled a very loaded big inu hanyou InuYasha. Then he crashed to the floor in a drunken stupour!

"C'mon, sweet prince. Time for beddy bye. Don't get up, folks. I can handle the big dumb mutt." said Kouga the wolf youkai demon and he half dragged, half walked the big guy out the portals.

I must really be a glutton for punishment and I was becoming curiouser and curiouser by the minute.

"What is this 'strip' thing?" I asked poor Sai since the Ninja kid was the closest person to me. He blushed quite red indeed!

Rio giggled and then whispered nto my ear. Now it was my turn to blush! Just then Rodan Archipelago came into the room. I had decided to make her a lance corporal a few days ago and now she was wearing her new semi-formal magenta & grey uniform but she had opted for the micro-mini-skirt rather than the trousers. Those calf high black Cavalier boots managed to show off her slim legs to their best advantage. She was quite the loveliest girl in the entire room.

"Wowie wow wow! Too bad she ain't an elf maiden, Naruto! I'd love to search her for spell fragments! Wouldn't you?" whispered Junpei, the elf hunter.

"No, he would not, thank you very much, Mr Junpei!" snapped the other Kakashi Sensei team member, Sakura Haruno.

"And if he did, our Saki and Ino would kick the crap outta him." joked Kakashi.

"Damned straight, Sensei!" yelled Ino, shaking her long blonde tresses and falling off her chair. Seemed that these Ninja just could not hold their 'Synthenol' worth a jot!

"I know! Let's have a swim suit contest! Ladies? Start getting undressed, please!" shouted Master Poreira Sensei who was in his cups this fine afternoon.

"Yeah, man! Start with Roddy! take it off, gal! Take it all off, baby!" howled Ninja Chunin lad Shikamaru just before he too passed out. His uncle needs to have a long talk with that young man! I mused to myself. His Uncle 'Shikky' was a personal friend of our esteemed 'fearless leader' O'Halloran and he was a Colonel in charge of the Shim spaceport tower back on my new home world.

Then I did a double take! Rodan had removed her jacket, vest and tie and was starting to unzip her shirt! Apair of hands shot out of the crowd surrounding the young 'time lady' and down came her skirt! I jumped up so fast that I upset the table and sent my lunch flying! Zoey managed to rescue her drink and steak platter just in time.

"NO! Roddy! Stop it! Stop it now! That's an order, Corporal Archipelago!" I screamed and a suddenly embarrassed 'time lady' fled the room clutchin a half unzipped shirt to her chest and with her skirt around her ankles! Zoey looked up and began chewing her steak again. She raised her knife, blade uppermost.

"That settles it. No forfeit! That OK with you, Alley Cat?" she said and her words were starting to slur together. Then my comm badge buzzed.

"Yeah? Prydonia here. Over." I trilled automatically.

"Nami Richards, Boss. Angel Jonny says there's something up here you have to see. Hurry up, mum. Richards out." trilled the Terran pirate navvy wench. I tried to excuse myself but a couple of arguments were raging. It looked pretty peaceful so I simply ran out the portals and up the gantryway stairs to the bridge.

"What is the huge emergency, Jonny?" I asked and Mark Gordon pointed at a shimmering wall of silvery threads in the cosmos directly in our ship's path.

"What the Hell is that stuff?" I demanded, accidentally using a bad swear word.

"That's what we want to know, Miss Commander." said a worried looking Mark Gordon. I turned to Angel Jonathan Smith.

"What does your boss have to say about it, Jon?" I asked softly. He shrugged.

"He won't say, Allie. He gets that way sometimes when he thinks it is an answer we should already know." he explained.

"And he's right as rain falling onto an umbrella in Cherbourg Anyone for tea?" said #6 Doctor, the 'Mad Hatter', fishing a teapot and cups out of his pockets!

"Do you know what that thing is, Doc?" demanded Oreneamia Richards. He smiled and poured out tea.

"Of course I do. Don't you, Miss Richards?" he chuckled.

She shook her head angrily and he added lemon and sugar to his tea.

"That is Terra's 'Ozone Layer' and I am very surprised that it is still here after all the millennia of pollution and aeresol sprays and fossil fuel emissions and worse that the Terrans have been bombarding it with, my dear children. Drat! Anyone have any Danishes? I'm fresh out." he explained and Zoey's voice exploded behind me.

"The Terran 'Ozone Layer'! You sure, Hatter Guy? Dammit! That would mean that we are a tad off course, Commander!" she snarled when #6 Doctor assured her that this was indeed Terra's 'Ozone Layer'. I was puzzled.

"What is this 'tad' thing, please?" I asked politely.

"She means that you have gotten off your course by a few hundred million 'parsecs', excuse me, a few hundred thousand 'lightys' as your lot call 'light years'. In this 'Milky Way' solar system, Terra is the third planet from their sun. Orion is nearer to Pluto. That planet or star or whatever they are calling it these days is the ninth or the eighth if you think that Pluto is not a real world which will upset Miss Morton to no end being as she grew up on it and her family and friends are still living on it." chortled the #6 Doctor. Someone had repped him up a tray of assorted Danish pastries and he was as happy as a clam.

"Now what do we do?" wailed Rio DelCroix who was not even supposed to be on the bridge!

"Get back on course! What d'ya think? The quicker, the better. We are losing precious time and you can bet yer boots that our opponents ain't gettin' themselves lost, mums!" growled Uncle Hiram MacDougal. He must have followed Rio up here.

Zoey sighed and pushed past us to her nav room where she had quicky recalculated our positioning and then got us back onto the correct course. Rio asked my unspoken question for me.

"Now how long 'till we gets to old 'Nosy', Dog Girl?" she demanded. Rio had been watching an old Terran animated 'cartoon' last month and she had seen a dog named Pluto on it whose master was a funny little mouse! Zoey was from Pluto. Pluto was a dog. Ergo, in milady Rio's opinion, Zoe Morton was a 'dog girl'. Zoey was way too busy on the scanners to pay attention to her new nickname. Uncle Hi escorted Rio back downstairs. The crisis was over.

"When?" he called back over his shoulder.

"ETA is tomorrow morning at 0600 hours, 6 AM, Hi. However we got off course, it was a real 'serendipity' for us. Shaved a whole solar day and a half off our journey. We may even be in scanning range for our 'mind experts' even though I can sense nothing at all yet. Could somebody rep me up another steak lunch and a chocolate latte shake? Thanks. Allie? I'm putting Nami on the scans and I am taking over navving duties until this mission's over. With your permission, of course, mum?" said my crackerjack chief navigator gal and I acquiesced after I'd learned that a 'serendipity' was a 'happy accident' and nothing for me to be concerned about at all.

"Hey! Where's our little Janey Huntley, guys?" asked Mark Gordon.

"She was homesick, Mr Whiskers Guy. She went home." answered Fllay Allster, one of our gunners' mates.

"How the Hell'd you figure that one out, Fllaysie?" yelled Zoey from next door.

"She told me last night in her room. She said she was gonna borrow the 'Grant' (one of our shuttles) and go back home today." explained the former 'Archangel' gunner. Her partner gunners' mate and also a former 'Archangel' crew member nodded in agreement.

"She ain't fibbin', Boss. I was there last night as well. I checked. Janey's gone!" said Cagalli Yula Athna and Fllay began to sob.

"Oh Niki? Could you do me a big favour and locate First Looey Julia Janelle Huntley for me?" said Mark Gordon.

"That's not necessary, Niki! Belay that request!" I yelled.

"I apologize, Mark but I am not permitted to divulge that information until tomorrow." replied Nikita our computer programming unit.

"Why not?" demanded Caggie.

"We do not reach 'Nosy the Second' until 0600 tomorrow. I have been ordered not to reveal her location until then." explained Niki. Zoey must have programmed Niki not to tell our secret surprise for Janey to anyone else but us.

"Tell us this much, Niki. Is our Janey safe?" asked Angel Jonny.

"Affirmative! The young lady in question is quite safe. However, my lips are also sealed until the morrow. Is that not so, Mistress Caldy?" said the third or was it fourth? K-9 doggie.

"She's fine, guys. You'll all see her first thing tomorrow that is unless you sleep in. Time for first dinner I think. Anyone coming?" said Romana, a Saiyaan on either arm and her hubby explaining about something called the 'Lost Dutchman' to Jonny and Mark and a bunch of other folks. I felt a little food wa sin order since my lunch had splattered all over the rec room's floor.

I was sitting quietly an hour later reading 'Moby Dick' in the star room on a window seat when the portals were shoved aside and in stormed a very angry Beta Zoid named Deanna Troi! She was carrying a box what looked to me to be useless junk like Daddy always kept under his TARDIS's console.

"Forget about us being able to locate those damned segments now, Alley Cat! Look at this mess! That damned automail armour mechanic decided to see what made my 'tracker' work so she took it apart!" she fumed. I put down my vidnovel on my PDO Unit's vidscreen.

"Winry Rockabelle?" I asked quite unnecessarily but I was buying time. Deanna looked mad enough to wipe up the floor with Ed and Alphonse's 'cousin'!

"Who else? Know of any other mechanical lamebrain morons we got aboard this tub?" snapped the Beta Zoid we had 'borrowed' from Starfleet Command.

"No. OK. Let us get this mess sorted out right now." I said. I spoke into my comm badge.

"Winry Rockabelle. Please report to me in the star room at once. This is a direct order, child. Prydonia out." I trilled. We did not have very long to wait.

"Ya wanted to see me, Commander Al? Unh huh! Ya didn't hafta tattle on me, Troisie! I was gonna put it back together after dinner! Sheesh! What a grouch! That all ya wanted, Allzie?" said the blonde from Amestris. If looks could have killed, Winry would have dropped down stone dead that very nanosecond!

"Winry. Do you have the slightest idea why Lt Commander Troi worked so diligently on that device for an entire week?" I asked quietly and she shook her blonde locks. She fished a cheroot out of her coveralls pocket and was about to light up.

"Smoking is a privilege and for you I hereby revoke it, Ensign Rockabelle. Put that away immediately." I snapped, startling the heck out of both blonde and Beta Zoid.

"Deanna, please explain to the ensign here what that device's purpose was to be?" I said and Winry's eyes were wide.

"Pardon me, ma'am but I am a First Lieutenant. You made a little mistake, didn't ya?" asked Winry.

"Rankings are also a privilege and I choose to revoke yours. You are reduced to Ensign Second Class until further notice. Please continue, Lt Commander Troi. Ensign Rockabelle will not interrupt again." I almost whispered and this time, Deanna Troi looked worried. After all, she had had first hand experience with a worse commander than me!

"Win, this was a 'tracker' device designed to locate and transform the segments of the SShadow Sword we are seeking. It was also to help us to find the 'Dark Bring' shadow stones to power it. Now-" Deanna let the rest of her thought hang in aether.

"Winry, you will remain here with me and Deanna in this room until you have reconstructed this important device. Afterwards, save for your duties aboard my ship and your meals, you will be confined to your quarters for the duration of this mission. Do you understand me?" I said and the blonde girl hung her head in shame and was almost in tears.

"Yes'm. I understand, Commander, ma'am. I will need my tools though." she replied. I spoke into my comm badge.

"Please have someone bring Ensign Rockabelle's tools to the star room immediately. Thank you. Prydonia out." I trilled.

"Anything else, brat?" sulked Deanna Troi.

"No need for that kind of language, Deanna. Ah! Here come your tools. Thank you, Buzz." I said and when I saw that Deanna and Winry were getting along peaceably again, I went back to Mr Melville's tale of high seas adventure on ancient Terra. Deanna looked over at me and grinned.

"Khan is forever quoting from that old book, Boss. It's a pretty good read according to Kiva (Nerese). She read it while I was with her aboard the 'Coriander'. Nope. That 'rezilliator pin' is in backwards, Win. Let me show you-" Deanna's voice trailed off as I lost myself with Ishmael and Ahab again.

When first dinner was announced, I relented and allowed Winry an hour off from her monumental seeming task of rebuilding Deannna's 'tracker' device. I did say only a half hour but then Deanna reminded me that it was Winry's turn for KP cleanup detail in the galleys.

I had reached a crucial point in 'Moby Dick' so I decided to rep up something for myself and I remained in the star room. I was still hard at it but very close to the end of my vidnovel when Deanna returned and went back to work. Winry came in running and out of breath just seconds shy of her hour. We both asked her why she had been running which was forbidden in our hallways.

"Colonel Starwind just found Orion and it is really and truly him, guys! He won't let us anywhere near our 'Nosy the Second' asteroid atoll! He fired on us, mum! Han has our shields up but we have not yet returned fire! Angel Jonny told me to get you back down to the bridge, mum! You oughta come too, Miss Troi. This thing is something else, man! Hurry!" shouted Winry and we hastened to the lift stations and down onto the bridge.

As soon as I got there, I did a double take and drew my stasis pistol!

"Yo! Relax, Commander! That thing is still a few hundred K kilometres from us! Teggie hailed it and its response was a blast f energy right at us! Han just managed to get the shields up before it hit us. Would have fried our grids for certain sure if it had gotten to the hull, mum! As it is, shields are at half strength!" said Gene Starwind, our pilot for this shift. I sat in my command chair and pulled up a super-magnification of the bridge's main forward vidscreens.

"Han, redirect 90% of our shield power from the aft and 30% from the port and starboard shields to our main fore shields. Do it now and that's an order, sir." I commanded and the rebel leader was quick to comply. That was only a stop gap measure but I had never encountered a thing quite like this before!

"The 'Enterprise' once had a similar situation, Al. In that case, it was the sun god Apollo we met and tangled with but that is not a god, I'd swear that on my galactic Oath, mum!" whispered Deanna Troi to me.

"Ye got that aright, lass. That be nae god. That do be, aye, it's gotta be him! Look beside him. They be doggies so that be nae other than Orion the mighty hunter beloved by Zeus! But what the devil's he doone oot here, by thunder?" roared Uncle Hiram MacDougal. His pipe was fuming out smoke furiously and I was gagging! I coughed and he tapped it out into an ashtray.

"Orion?" said a puzzled Fllay Allster and Uncle Hi began to explain the history of this great hunter from Greek and Roman mythologies on ancient Terra. I stemmed the tide and wanted to know what the Dickens he was doing there and why was he blocking us from the second segment of the sword?

"Why don't we just ask the guy what he wants?" suggested Buzz Murdoch.

"When we met Apollo, Captain Kirk asked him that question, Buzz. He replied that he was guarding against anyone finding the real Mt Olympus in the heavens. Mr Spock observed that it was most illogocal to have Mt Olympus out this far when everyone knew that it was a mountain of the Earth's Greece!" said Deanna.

"What happened, Miss Troi?" asked Cagalli Yula Athna.

"He took out our weapons, engineering and propulsions systems leaving us on life support and a thirtieth of our power, Lt." answered the Beta Zoid. She had been referring to her days with Starfleet when she was third officer aboard the 'Enterprise'. Daddy had told me all about that bunch of 'silly geese' as he had called the Starfleet crew.

"Miss Troi! I finished this stupid tracker thing and I swear it's goin' off the board, man! Look!" yelled an out of breath Winry Rockabelle, brandishing the newly reassembled 'tracker' which Deanna immediately grabbed from the blonde girl. Her eyes went round and she cursed lustily.

"Dammit! The damned thing is still broken, Rockabelle! I thought you said you had- Holy shit!" howled Deanna Troi and she ran back upstairs to the star room. My comm badge began trilling and I answered it.

"Yes? Prydonia here. Over." I trilled.

"I owe Winry an apology, Boss! This tracker is working fine only it's pointing at what it says is the second segment but, but, it just ain't possible, Alley Cat! It's pointin', dammit all, Al! Get your rear end up here and fast! Troi out." trilled the Beta Zoid.

"Back in a few, guys. Han, you have the comm." I snapped and raced for the gantryway stairs. Panting like a jaguarasaurus, I rushed into the star room.

"Well? What is so all fired important that requires cursing and using vulgar language to a superior officer, Deanna?" I asked.

"Look and see for yourself, Boss. See the golden arrow on this tracker unit? (I nodded) Do you see where it's pointin' or rather exactly what it is zeroed in on, Al? Tell me I ain't a candidate for 'Zarigon Ten'!" whimpered Deanna. She was referring to an insane asylum colony in space.

"It, it seems to be indicating that, that thing that Uncle Hi told us was Orion. Is that not good, Deanna?" I replied.

"Know that things are not always as they may appear to your own eyes, my children." roared a deep bass voice which seemed to be emanating from- everywhere!

"Oh no! Not that old fool again! It sounds like that Templar knight who helped us on that treasure hunt we went on a few years back. That was before you joined us, Boss. Could he possibly mean that thing out there really is the second chunk of the sword? Boss? Could I maybe take an away team on the 'Grant' out to the great hunter and use the 'space arms' to touch my tracker to it just in case that old guy we just heard might be right? I promise to be real careful. Can I try it, mum?" pleaded Deanna and I nodded quickly.

"Buzz, Todd? Allison here. I want the 'US Grant' shuttle prepped and ready for Lt Commander Troi's away team as soon as possible. Oh and I want you two, Angel Jonny and Mark Gordon to accompany that team. Prydonia out." I trilled.

Hi guys! It's me, Fllay Allster. I have been given permission to sum up what happened when Troisie's away team took the 'Grant' over to big guy Orion and his doggies which trio was in the space betwixt them stars called 'Cereal' and 'Battle Axe'. OK! Caggie Athna says them stars is called 'Sirius' and 'Betelgeuse'. Sheesh! Like bein' back at the 'Cademy!

Anyway, Caggie and me got sent along for learnin' purposes or so said our strategy officer, Mr Peabody. I think he was just sick of hearin' me whinin' all the time! Well, Troisie used them funny lookin' long 'gloves' that ran them cool 'arms' on the outside o' the shuttle. She had her 'tracker' toy held firmly in both 'hands' and she had barely touched one of the big guy's sandals with the gadget when-

POOF! Orion and his 'doggies' were gone! In their place was a floating piece of tarnished junk which I wanted to blast away but Troisie ordered Buzzy and Toddsy to 'tractor' that disgusting piece o' crap aboard the ship. As soon as we got it aboard, we high-tailed it back to the 'Dae' where, wonder o' wonders, the new piece o' junk we had brought back fitted perfectly into the first piece we had already collected!

"Two down and three to go now!" crowed Dog Boy until Wolfie boxed his ears.

"Where to now, Princess?" drawled Han Solo from the co-pilot's seat. Gene Starwind wa sin the pilot's seat and I was sprawled out in my command chair with my legs across the arm of the cool chair. I pointed to Deanna Troi.

"Anything on the 'tracker' unit, Deanna?" I asked but she slowly shook her head.

"Time for another 'think tank', guys! Let's get a wiggle on!" said Alphonse Elric and Mac looked worried.

"Guess we may as well, folks. I got nary a clue. I asked Roddy Arch (Rodan Archipelago had studied archaeology for a whole semester back on Gallifrey a few decades back so she had been asked to help out Uncle Hi with his researches) to do a complete sweep of those vellums I just borrowed from Dr Eldklein on 'Grazilian Six'. I feel certain sure that the secret of the third piece's location is to be found somewhere in those old charts and maps. Mum? Could we take off the rest of today and get a fresh start in the mornin' when we've all ahd a good night's sleep?" said the big Scotsman and I smiled and nodded.

"With the exception of our bridge crew and nav room crew, everyone is dismissed until 1100 hours (11 AM) tomorrow. You have all done a dashed good job. Han? Keep us in orbit around 'Betelgeuse' until further notice. You guys need anything else from me?" I asked and Han waved me away. The others had speedily dispersed before I changed my mind.

"Nikita? Is Janey Huntley OK on her visit home?" I asked our computer programming unit.

"Affirmative, Mistress. Sorry about that, Allie. I have been hanging around the K-9's too much, I guess. Allie? That holo program will end at noon tomorrow. Has Janey ever experienced a holodeck shutdown? No? Then you or Zoey had better release her from her visit home program before then tomorrow. I believe I am going to shut down and recharge my power packs. Have a nice evening. 'Night." replied Nikita.

I had reached my own quarters by then and I had dumped Whitey on the sofa. Roddy was dozing on her kitchenette bar stool. Spread out across the counter top were various vellums, papyruses, parchments and other star charts and vid maps. I gently picked up the poor kid and carried her into her bedroom. I laid her on her bunk and covered her with the fleecey blanket that I had been given by #2 Doctor. He told me that it was a Hudson River blanket and was quite warm and toasty. Roddy had not even showed any sign that I had moved her.

I sat down on the sofa and sipped my java and mused about where the heck our quest would lead us to next?

END of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 'Hall of the Sea King' or 'Neptune Next?' to follow soon. Hope to finish the next chapter before Easter. Happy Vernal Equinox to everyone and a belated happy birthday to Classic Yuri! Read/Review/Suggest away, guys and ladies. Like the hep cats of OffBeat Cinema, we love the mail so email us whatever you like! Later- Edie and Your Friendship Team wish you all the best!


End file.
